And I know not why a distant citizen, charged with no offence, and in every right the peer of any office-holder, should be treated with less consideration.

If information be desired from him for any legislative purpose, let him communicate it in the way most convenient to himself, and most consistent with those rights of the citizen which all are bound to respect.

At all events, if this power is to be exercised, let it not be under a simple resolution of the Senate, but by virtue of a general law, passed by both Houses, and approved by the President, so that the citizen shall be surrounded with…

President, I confidently submit that a power so entirely without support, and also so obnoxious to criticism, at the same time that it is so vast, is not to be carelessly exercised.

This is a fearful prerogative, and permit me to say, that, in assuming it, you liken yourselves to the Jesuits, at the period of their most hateful supremacy, when it was said that their power was a sword whose handle was at Rome and whose…

You take into your hands a sword whose handle will be in this Chamber, to be clutched by a mere partisan majority, and whose point will be in every corner of the Republic.

If the present case were doubtful, which I do not admit, I feel that I cannot go wrong, when I lean to the side of Liberty.

But, even admitting that you have the power, is this the occasion to use it?

Is the object to be accomplished worth the sacrifice?

It is well to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.

But I am unwilling that this act of justice should be done to a much injured citizen, without for one moment exposing the injustice which he has received at your hands.

If sustained at all, it must be by that principle of universal jurisprudence, and also of natural law, which gives to every body, whether natural or artificial, the right to protect its own existence,--in other words, the great right of…

And I submit that no principle less solid can sustain this exercise of power.

It must be absolutely essential to the self-preservation of the body; and even then, in the absence of any law, it must be open in our country to the gravest doubts.

Convenient, at times, it may be; but necessary, never.

We do not drag members of the Cabinet or the President to testify before a committee, in aid of legislation; but I say, without hesitation, they can claim no immunity which does not belong equally to the humblest citizen.

Such a power as this--which, without the sanction of law, and merely at the will of a partisan majority, may be employed to ransack the most distant States, and to drag citizens before the Senate all the way from Wisconsin or from South…

Throughout all time alleged necessity has been the apology for wrong.

So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, The tyrant’s plea, excused his devilish deeds.

Let me be understood as admitting the power of the Senate, where it is essential to its own protection or the protection of its privileges, but not where it is required merely in aid of legislation.

The difference is world-wide between what is required for protection and what is required merely for aid; and here I part from Senators with whom I am proud on other matters to act.

The mere statement of the case shows the dangerous absurdity of such a claim.

There are Senators here who pretend to find in the Constitution the right to carry slaves into the National Territories.

Sanborn, or of anybody else, merely to aid legislation, is not astonishing; but I am at a loss how Senators who love Freedom can find any such right in the Constitution.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.