Senator Robert LaFollette's speech to the United States Senate on "Free Speech and the Right of Congress to Declare the Objects of War," given October 6, 1917, epitomized his opposition to the war and the Wilson administration's largely successful moves to suppress public criticism of the war. In the speech he asserted his position on the Congressional role in declaring and waging war, as stated in the United States Constitution. The speech stands as a political argument based on definition or principle, and it is a landmark in the history of public defense of the principles of free speech, representative democracy, and division of powers as manifested in the Constitution. (DS)