an illusion, it is an illusion which appears to me in
all the brightness and sunlight of broad noon,--that it is in this
career of personal confidence, along this beaten track of _man-worship_,
marked at every stage by the fragments of other free governments, that
our own system is making progress to its close. A personal popularity,
honorably earned at first by military achievements, and sustained now by
party, by patronage, and by enthusiasm which looks for no ill, because
it means no ill itself, seems to render men willing to gratify power,
even before its demands are made, and to surfeit executive discretion,
even in anticipation of its own appetite.

If, Sir, on the 3d of March last, it had been the purpose of both houses
of Congress to create a military dictator, what formula had been better
suited to their purpose than this vote of the House? It is true, we
might have given more money, if we had had it to give. We might have
emptied the treasury; but as to the _form_ of the gift, we could not
have bettered it. Rome had no better models. When we give our money _for
any military purpose whatever_, what remains to be done? If we leave it
with one man to decide, not only whether the military means of the
country shall be used at all, but how they shall be used, and to what
extent they shall be employed, what remains either for Congress or the
people but to sit still and see how this dictatorial power will be
exercised? On the 3d of March, Sir, I had not forgotten, it was
impossible that I should have forgotten, the recommendation in the
message at the opening of that session, that power should be vested in
the President to issue letters of marque and reprisal against France, at
his discretion, in the recess of Congress. Happily, this power was not
granted; but suppose it had been, what would then have been the true
condition of this government? Why, Sir, this condition is very shortly
described. The whole war power would have been in the hands of the
President; for no man can doubt a moment that reprisals would bring on
immediate war; and the treasury, to the amount of this vote, in addition
to all ordinary appropriations, would have been at his absolute disposal
also. And all this in a time of peace. I beseech all true lovers of
constitutional liberty to contemplate this state of things, and tell me
whether such be a truly republican administration of this government.
Whether particular consequences had ensued or no