And permit me to say that any apology now offered on pretext of ignorance shows simply a disposition to evade a just responsibility at any hazard of personal character.

Of course such a suggestion must be futile; for every man is presumed to know the natural consequences of his conduct.

No man can be admitted to set up any carelessness or heedlessness as apology for treason.

And I doubt not you will all agree with me, that a patriot Senator cannot be careless or heedless, when his country is in peril.

Then, indeed, is disloyalty trivial; then is treason itself trivial.

It is true, the letter is curt; it contains a single short paragraph only; but I have yet to learn that crime is measured by paragraphs or sentences, and that treason may not be found in a few words as well as in many.

True, also, the letter is familiar in tone; but treason is a subtle wickedness, which sometimes stalks in state and sometimes shuffles in homely disguise.

It is our duty to detect and to judge it, whatever form it takes.

President, let me not be unjust,--let me not lean even ungently against an offender; but you will pardon me, if I add, that against precise testimony, and in the face of unquestioned facts, I can find little in any present professions of…

The duty of the Senate depends upon former conduct, and not upon present professions.

It is difficult to imagine any present professions which can restore the confidence essential to the usefulness of a Senator.

It is in the hour of trial and doubt that men show themselves as they are, laying up for the future weal or woe,--and not afterwards, when all temptation to disloyalty is lost in the assured danger it must encounter, and when all positions…

He may not fancy being classed with Benedict Arnold; but the professions of that fugitive traitor are identical with the professions to which we have listened on this floor.

But we should act weakly and ignobly, if on any such ground we failed in the double duty now so urgent,--first, to the Senate, of which we are members, and next, to that country which has a right to our truest and most unhesitating…

No argument, no apology, no extenuation can remove or mitigate its requirements.

There is a courage which belongs to this peaceful Chamber as much as to the battle-field, and now is the occasion for it.

Above all, let no false tenderness substitute sympathy for judgment; and remember well, that, while casting out a faithless Senator, you will elevate the Senate and inspire the country.

PRESIDENT,--This debate is about to close; but before the vote is taken I wish briefly to review it, and to show again that there is but one conclusion which can truly satisfy the Senate or the country.

If your last judgment in this case were not of incalculable importance both for the Senate and the country, helping to elevate the one and to inspire the other, I should not venture again to claim your attention.

Such a precedent, so fruitful in good influences, should be completely commended and vindicated, that it may remain forever a commanding example.

It is sufficient for me that I spoke in the conscious discharge of duty, and that I know of nothing in the vindictive tone or in the menace of the Senator that can interfere with such duty, as I understand it.

Therefore I put aside what he has said, whether of personal imputation, or of personal menace, or of argument; for they all leave him worse than if he had continued silent.

There is a time to sow and a time to reap; and there will be a time to discuss the constitutional power of Congress to end this Rebellion, even if, in so doing, it is constrained to end Slavery itself.

The Senate itself is on trial just as much as the Senator; and permit me to say that the Senate will condemn itself, if it allow any person to continue among its members who has forfeited that peculiar confidence in his loyalty which is…

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