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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



" "What was the old Democratic party ? It 

 was the party of the South ; it was made up of 

 those men in the Southern country who entered 

 into the rebellion. That casual expression, 

 dropped at the Burnett House in Cincinnati in 

 February, 1865, discloses his mysterious course 

 from that day to this. I do not speak now of 

 those Democrats of the North who stood by 

 the flag of the country, who maintained the 

 cause of the Union, but I speak of that old 

 Democratic party of which he spoke, whose 

 inspiring principle was devotion to slavery, 

 hatred to republican institutions and the cause 

 of the Union and of liberty. It was to them 

 that Mr. Johnson, in February, 1865, turned 

 his eyes for the salvation of the country. He 

 was then Vice-President only, but his career as 

 President illustrates his devotion to the pur- 

 pose he then entertained. 



" I come now to a brief statement of those 

 acts of the President which disclose his mo- 

 tives and establish his guilt. First, he and his 

 friends sedulously promulgated the idea that 

 what he did in the year 1865 was temporary. 



" Then came his message of December, 1865, 

 which disclosed more fully his ulterior pur- 

 pose. 



"Then came the speech of February 22, 

 1866, in which he arraigned the Congress of 

 the United States collectively and individual- 

 ly, and, as I believe, made use of expressions 

 which, uttered by a sovereign of Great Britain 

 in reference to Parliament, and to individual 

 members of Parliament, would have led to most 

 serious consequences, if not to the overthrow 

 of the Government. 



" Then came his vetoes of the various recon- 

 struction measures. I know very well that it 

 will be said that the President has the veto 

 power in his hands. To be sure he has ; but 

 it is a power to be exercised, like the discretion 

 of a court, in good faith, for proper purposes, 

 in honest judgment and good conscience, and 

 not persistently in the execution of a scheme 

 which is in contravention of the just authority 

 of the legislative branch of the Government. 

 It was exercised, however, by the President 

 for the purpose of preventing reconstruction 

 by congressional agency and by authority of 

 law. 



" Then came his interference by his message 

 of the 22d of June, 1866, and by other acts, all 

 disclosing and furthering a purpose to prevent 

 the ratification of the pending constitutional 

 amendment, a matter with which, as the Execu- 

 tive of the country, he had no concern what- 

 ever. The Constitution provides that the 

 House and the Senate, by specified means, may 

 propose amendments to the Constitution ; and 

 if any subject is wholly separated from execu- 

 tive authority or control, it is this power to 

 amend the Constitution of the United States. 

 The Constitution reserves this power to Con- 

 gress, and to the people, excluding the Presi- 

 dent. In the same year he suspended the 

 test-oath, against the advice of the Attorney- 



General, and appointed men to office who, as 

 he well knew, could not take that oath. The 

 oath was prescribed for the purpose of protect- 

 ing the country against the presence of disloyal 

 persons in office a measure necessary to the 

 public safety. Can any act be more reprehen- 

 sible ? Can any act be more criminal ? Can 

 any act be more clearly within Blackstone's 

 definition of ' crimes and misdemeanors.' 



" Then follows his surrender of abandoned 

 lands. In 1865 we passed the first Freedmen's 

 Bureau bill, in which we set apart the aban- 

 doned lands for the negroes and refugees of 

 the South. In violation of law and without 

 authority of law he has restored them to their 

 former rebel owners. This class of property 

 was of the value of many millions of money. 



" We had captured in the South vast amounts 

 of railway property. All these millions of 

 property he has turned over to their former 

 rebel proprietors. In many instances, as in 

 the case of one railway, the Government itself, 

 under his special direction and control, in the 

 State of Tennessee, constructed fifty-four miles 

 of railway at an expense of more than two 

 million dollars. This railway, with others, 

 was turned over without consideration, with- 

 out power to make reclamation, or to obtain 

 compensation, and all without authority of 

 law. 



" "We possessed a vast amount of rolling-stock 

 used on Southern roads during the war, some 

 of it captured from the enemy. The rolling- 

 stock captured he restored without money and 

 without price. Other portions of it, construct- 

 ed by the Government of the United States, or 

 purchased of manufacturers or of railroad com- 

 panies, he sold without authority of law to cor- 

 porations that, according to the principles of 

 law, were insolvent. When the time arrived 

 for payment to the Government, many of them 

 neglected to comply with the conditions of sale. 

 One of those corporations, the Nashville and 

 Chattanooga Railroad, Tennessee, made an ex- 

 hibit by which it appeared they had money on 

 hand to pay the Government what they owed 

 it. The officers of the Government demanded 

 payment, and threatened to take possession of 

 the road in case of further neglect. President 

 Johnson, by his simple order, and that, as far 

 as is known, without consultation with any 

 member of the Cabinet, authorized, or rather 

 directed, a delay or postponement in the col- 

 lection of this debt. Agreeably to a previous 

 order which, he had issued, the interest on the 

 bonds guaranteed by the State of Tennessee to 

 this road, which had been due three or four 

 years, were then paid out of money which, 

 upon every principle of reason, equity, and 

 law, belonged to the Government. The money 

 had been earned by the use of the rolling-stock 

 which the Government had furnished. 



" Mr. Johnson's order was in utter disregard 

 of the great principle that of all creditors the 

 Government is to be first paid. Under no cir- 

 cumstances does the law concede to the citizen 



