U.S. Senator John C. Breckinridge and U.S. Rep. Henry Burnett, "and to the violation of the right to keep and bear arms, as so many successive steps towards the military despotism"

U.S. Senator John C. Breckinridge and U.S. Rep. Henry Burnett, “To declare that Congress, by a joint resolution, can indemnify the President for any action he has taken is to give the President a precedent that he may always follow. I deny that Congress can use the Constitution either as a means of encroachment or of indemnification. . . . infringements on the rights of the people, on their property, on their papers, on their right to bear arms. He said that should the resolution pass, the country would stalk on giant strides fast towards a military despotism. . . . and to the violation of the right to keep and bear arms, as so many successive steps towards the military despotism which would be the inevitable result if this war was persisted in.”, July 16, 1861