ct delaying their admission, whether it is to be
considered as a fault or not? Because we want to inquire into the
condition of these States. Why, in the name of Heaven! how long have
we been here? We came here early in December, and this is the month of
April; and here we may remain until July, or, as rumor has it, until
next December; and shall we be satisfied within that time that
Congressional legislation may be safely adopted?

"I have a word or two more to say. My honorable friend from Illinois,
as it seemed to me--his nature is impulsive, and perhaps he was
carried further than he intended--seemed to intimate that the
President of the United States had not acted sincerely in this matter;
that his usurpation was a clear one, and that he was to be censured
for that usurpation. What has he done? He has vetoed this bill. He had
a constitutional right to do so. Not only that; if he believed that
the effect of the bill would be that which he states in his Veto
Message, he was not only authorized but bound to veto it. His oath is
to 'preserve' as well as to 'protect and defend' the Constitution of
the United States; and believing, as he does, and in that opinion I
concur, that this bill assails the Constitution of the United States,
he would have been false to his plighted faith if he had not returned
it with his objections.

"He desires--and who does not?--that the Union shall be restored as it
originally existed. He has a policy which he thinks is best calculated
to effect it. He may be mistaken, but he is honest. Congress may
differ with him. I hope they will agree sooner or later, because I
believe, as I believe in my existence, that the condition in which the
country now is can not remain without producing troubles that may
shake our reputation, not only in our own eyes, but in the eyes of the
civilized world. Let the day come when we shall be again together, and
then, forgetting the past, hailing the present, and looking forward to
the future, we shall remember, if we remember the past at all, for the
exhibition of valor and gallantry displayed on both sides, and find in
it, when we become one, a guarantee that in the future no foreign
hostilities are to be dreaded, and that no civil discord need be
apprehended."

Mr. Trumbull said: "The opinion of Judge Curtis, from which the
Senator read, was the opinion of a dissenting judge, entitled to very
great credit on account of the learning and ability of that judge,