RIGHTS OF SOVEREIGNTY AND RIGHTS OF WAR:
TWO SOURCES OF POWER AGAINST THE REBELLION.
Speech in the Senate, on his Bill for the Confiscation of Property and the Liberation of Slaves belonging to Rebels, May 19, 1862.
Wherefore he deserves to be punished, not only as an enemy, but also as a traitor, both to you and to us. And indeed treason is as much worse than war as it is harder to guard against what is secret than what is open,—and as much more hateful, as with enemies men make treaties again, and put faith in them, but with one who is discovered to be a traitor nobody ever enters into covenant, or trusts him for the future.—Xenophon, Hellenica, Book II. ch. 3, § 29.
Tum, ex consulto Senatus adversariis hostibus judicatis, in præsentem Tribunum, aliosque diversæ factionis, jure sævitum est.—Florus, Epitome, Lib. III. cap. 21.
Ego semper illum appellavi hostem, cum alii adversarium; semper hoc bellum, cum alii tumultum. Nec hæc in Senatu solum; eadem ad populum semper egi.—Cicero, Oratio Philippica XII. cap. 7.
Except the Tax Bill, no subject occupied so much attention during this session as what were known generally as “Confiscation Bills,” all proposing, in different ways, the punishment of Rebels and the weakening of the Rebellion, by taking property and freeing slaves. In supporting these bills, Mr. Sumner did not disguise his special anxiety to assert the power of Congress over Slavery.