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Congressional Record-Senate fsso. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 1363 fairly it must be construed in reference to the case in which it was from Indiana, I think the Nineteenth Indiana, as brave a body of pronounced ; and I would say that in a case where the statute author­ men as ever trod a battle-field; a body of men who, for heroism, for ized only fine and imprisonment or such other punishment as the court endurance in the privations of war, and for soldierly bearing and con­ might adjudge, the words" such other punishment "meant such other duct everywhere, would not suffer by comparison with the Old Guard lesser punishment as the court may inflict; it certainly would not of Napoleon. In one of the battles of that campaign, this brigade authorize a man to be shot. But in this case the article of war un­ lost in killed and wounded, one-third of its numbers. This was be­ der which Fitz-John Porter was tried is the ninth article and it pro­ fore Porter's disobedience of orders, but as the campaign was turned vides that : from a success to a defeat by Porter's disobedience, all their lives A.JJ.y officer or soldier who * * * shall disobey any lawful command of his were sacrificed in vain, which otherwise would have been a part superior officer, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as shall, according to of the p1i.ce paid for the success of the campaign. Every train of the nature of his offense, be inflicted upon him by the sentooce of a court-martial. cars that penetrated the interior States for months afterward came It is a maxim of the law that what may not be done by a court or freighted with the sacred remains of our slaughtered soldiers. These by a legislature directly cannot be done indirectly; but I have never were piled up at railway stations like merchandise. They sleep now heard the converse of this maxim asserted. I have never heard it in the graves that dot every high hill and evefY green valley in Wis­ said that what a court or power could do indirectly, it could not do consin. Our people will not soon forget Fi'tz-John Porter. They directly. If that court thought it essential to exclude Fitz-John Por­ w;ill never forgive him. They would not soon forget me and never ter from all offices of honor, profit, and trust, they had it in their forgive me if I should stand here as their representative and vote power to effect that purpose. The act passed by Con~ress authorized to put Porter back where he would have been if he had not!committed that court on convicting the defendant to sentence him to be hanged this unspeakable crime, and pay him all that he would have had if or shot. That would have disqualified him from holding any office he bad remained in the service and served his country faithfully. of trust, honor, or profit under the United States, with a vengeance. Queer things are being done these days. This thing may be done Now can it be maintained that where a court may take a man's life by the Senate. It will not be done by my vooo. Were I to vote for as a punishment, they cannot exclude him from office and save his this bill I should fancy that the tears of widows and orphans were life 'I In other words, does not the greater include the less in this as moistening the dust at my feet ; I should imagine that the disem­ in all other instances 'i It is perfectly clear that the court under that bodied spirits, the frowning shades of twenty thousand soldiers, article of war had jurisdiction to sentence him to death. That there slaughtered in vain, were mustering in this Chamber to scourge me is no doubt about; and having that, they had a right to inflict any from my seat. Nevertheless, Mr. President, God's will be done. It lesser punishment. may be that even this last travesty upon justice is necessary. They Then the only restriction upon them was the clause of the Consti­ tell us that whom the gods mean to destroy they first make mad. It tution that cruel and unusual punishments should not be inflicted. may be, although it seems impossible, that the democrats are not This certainly was not a cruel or unusual punishment. Disqualifica­ mad enough yet to insure their total destruction. This last act may tion to hold office, as a penalty for crime following conviction, exists be needed to convince the American people that, to insure a proper by the faws of almost all the States, and our Revised Statutes are discrimination between virtue and vice, to fix the proper ban on dis­ full of provisions which prescribe that when a man is convicted of loyalty and hold rebellion in check, we need in the White House certain offenses, a part of his sentence shall be that he is disqualified once more the steady hand, the cool head, and the patriotic heart of to hold any office of honor, or trust, or profit. · U. S. Grant. [Applause in the galleries.] Now, Mr. President, I shall leave this case. I had intended to re­ Mr. BAYARD. Mr. President-- view the testimony on the question, Was Porter guilty? There are Mr. DAVIS, of Illinois. The Senator from Delaware does not wish two reasons why I do not. In the first place I think it wholly unnec­ to proceed now, I suppose. If the Senator will yield, I move that essary, because if we have no constitutional power to pardon, or what the Senate adjourn. is the same thing relieve him from any part of that judgment, it is Mr. GARLAND. I think there is some executive business we might immaterial whether he was guilty or was not guilty. In the next transact, and I suggest that we have an executive session. place, that part of the task bas been performed by the Senator from Mr. DAVIS, of Illinois. I withdraw the motion for that purpose. Illj.nois so much better than I could do it, that I will not take the AMENDMENT TO A BILL. risk of weakening the impression he made by going over the same ground. - Mr. PADDOCK submitted an amendment ilitended to be proposed Mr. President, I have no feeling against Fitz-John Porter of any by him to the post-route bill; which was referred to the Committee kind. I was with him a year at the Academy at West Point. I had on Post-Offices and Post.-Roads, and ordered to be printed. always esteemed him until this affair occurred. In all his former EXECUTIVE SESSION. history in the Army, no man ever questioned his courage, no man Mr GARLAND. I move that the Senate proceed to the considera­ ever questioned his devotion to the flag. He stood high; he performed tion of executive business. his duty well, and was entitled to praise and credit, and had it too The motion was agreed 'to; and the Senate proceeded to the con­ from all sources ; he was brevetted for gallant conduct, but as the sideration of executive business. After one hour 'Spent in execu­ Senator from Illinois well said yesterday, those thin~ become aggra­ tive session the doors were reopened, and (at three o'clock and forty vations of his offense under the circumstances of this case. minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned. The testimony here, which I have examined pretty fully, convinces . I me, not that Porter was disloyal to the Union, not that Porter meant that the South should succeed in breaking up the Government, but he was devoted to McClellan; McClellan was the idol of his heart and the star of his hope. He wanted to see McClellan succeed first. IN SENATE. He wanted to see our cause prosper, but he wanted McClellan to lead MONDAY, March 8, 1880. us to victory. He was the man to whom he was attached, the man on whom all the affections of his heart seemed to be centered; and it Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. J. J. BULLOCK, D. D. was bitter as death to him when McClellan was supplanted in com­ The Journal of the proceedings of Saturday last was read and ap­ mand and •succeeded by a man for whom he seems to have had great proved. contempt. That was the fault and caused the fall of Fitz-John Por­ DISTRICT WATER SUPPLY. ter, who, like Lucifer, fell, never to rise again. The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate a letter from the Why, look at the offense of which he has been convicted-and I commissioners of the District of Columbia, in reply to a resolution of think the testimony sustains the finding of the colll't. There a bat­ the Senate relative to an additional water supply on Capitol Hill; tle was raging, upon which the fate of this nation might be depend­ which was referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. ing. Orders w~re issued to him again and again, which he disre­ He also laid before the Senate a letter from the commissioners of garded; which he flatly disobeyed, and when finally, in obedience to the District of Columbia, in reply to a resolution of the Senate relative the positive order to come and report on the battle-field to Pope in to the waste of water in the District; which was referred to the Com­ person, he did come up; he came up, as it is said, without one of his mittee on the District of Columbia; • brigades, and so tardily as to show that he had no wish for Pope's success, and no desire to obey the order.
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