But the Rights of War are fixed, whether against alien enemies or against enemies whose hostility is aggravated by the guilt of rebellion, with this single difference, that against rebel enemies these rights would seem to be more complete and unsparing. Show me any Right of War which may be employed against alien enemies, and now, in the name of the Constitution, I insist upon its employment against rebels arrayed as enemies. Because enemies are also rebels, they are not on this account any the less enemies. Because rebels are also enemies, they are not on this account any the less rebels. The double character which they bear increases their liabilities, subjecting them to all the penalties of war enhanced by those personal responsibilities which every partaker in rebellion necessarily assumes. And yet, Sir, the Constitution is cited as a limitation upon these rights. As well cite the Constitution on the field of battle to check the bayonet charge of our armies, or at the bombardment of a fortress to stay the fiery rain of shells; or, to adopt the examples with which I began, as well cite the Constitution to prevent the occupation of churches here in Washington as hospitals for our soldiers, or to save the house of General Lee in Virginia from similar dedication. The Constitution is entirely inapplicable. Sacred and inviolable, the Constitution is made for friends who acknowledge it, and not for enemies who disavow it; and it is made for a state of peace, and not for the fearful exigencies of war, treading down within its sphere all rights except the Rights of War. Born of violence, and looking to violence for victory, war discards all limitations except such as are supplied by the Rights of War. Once begun, war is a law unto itself,--or, in other words, it has a law of its own, which is part of itself. And just in proportion as you seek to moderate it by constitutional limitations do you take from war something of its efficiency. In vain do you equip our soldiers with the best of weapons, or send into the field the most powerful batteries, the latest invention of consummate science, if you direct them all in full career to stand still for an indictment, or other “due process of law,” or, at least, for the reading of the Riot Act. Undertaking to limit the Rights of War by the Constitution, where are you to stop? If the Constitution can interfere with one, it can interfere with all. If the Constitution can wrest from Government the weapons of confiscation and liberation, there is no other weapon in the whole arsenal of war which it may not take also.