Page:Speeches, Arguments, Addresses, and Letters of Clement L. Vallandigham.djvu/308

306 my opinions and position; and briefly, but most frankly, you have them.

My only answer to those who indulge in slander and vituperation, was given in the card of the 17th of April, herewith inclosed.

The House was in Committee of the Whole, the subject under consideration, The State of the Union, when Mr. Vallandigham, obtaining the floor, said: Mr. Chairman: In the Constitution of the United States, which the other day we swore to support, and hy the authority of which we are here assembled now, it is written: " All legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in a Congress of the United States." It is further written, also, that the Congress, to which all legislative powers granted, are thus committed—" Shall make no law abridgfing the freedom of si)eech or of the press." And, it is yet further written, in protection of Senators and Reptc