138 



Official copy respectfully furnished to Hon. Edwin M. 

 Stanton. L- THOMAS, 



Secretary of War ad interim. 



Upon the evidence collected "by the committee,which 

 is herewith presented, and in virtue of the powers 

 with which they have been invested by the House, 

 they are of the opinion that Andrew Johnson, Presi- 

 dent of the United States, be impeached of high crimes 

 and misdemeanors. They therefore recommend to the 

 House the adoption of the accompanying resolution. 

 THADDEUS STEVENS, 

 GEORGE S. BOUTWELL, 

 JOHN A. BINGHAM, 

 C. T. HULBURD, 

 JOHN F. FARNS WORTH, 

 F. C. BEAMAN, 

 H. E. PAINE. 



Resolution providing for the, impeachment of Andrew 



Johnson, President of the United States. 

 Resolved, That Andrew Johnson, President of the Uni- 

 ted States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors 

 in office. 



Mr. Stevens said: "Mr. Speaker, it is not 

 my intention in the first instance to discuss 

 this question ; and if there be no desire on the 

 other side to discuss it we are willing that 

 the question should be taken upon the knowl- 

 edge which the House already has. Indeed, 

 the fact of removing a man from office while 

 the Senate was in session, without the consent 

 of the Senate, if there were nothing else, is of 

 itself, and always has been considered, a high 

 crime and misdemeanor, and was never before 

 practised." 



Mr. Brooks, of New York, said : " Why is 

 this attempted? Because it is believed that 

 the Northern people of this country are now 

 with the Democratic party ; because it is be- 

 lieved now, previous to a presidential election, 

 it is necessary so to manipulate and control 

 the executive and judicial departments of the 

 Government, by the annexation of some Afri- 

 can States of the South, that the so-called 

 Republicans of the North, in spite of the ma- 

 jority of the Northern people, shall obtain 

 control and possession of this Government. 

 The sacrifice of two of the three branches of 

 Government is deemed indispensably necessary 

 to keep the Republican party in power." 



Mr. Spalding, of Ohio, said : " It has seemed 

 to me, sir, for weeks, that this high officer of 

 our Government was inviting the very ordeal 

 which, I am sorry to say, is now upon us, and 

 the dread consequences of which will speedily 

 be upon him. He has thrown himself violently 

 in contact with an act of Congress passed on 

 the 2d day of March last by the votes of the 

 constitutional two-thirds of the Senate, and 

 two-thirds of the House of Representatives, 

 over his veto assigning his reasons for with- 

 holding his assent. Now, it matters not how 

 many acts can be found upon the statute-books 

 in years gone by that would sanction the re- 

 moval of a Cabinet officer by the President ; the 

 gentleman from New York numbers three. 

 He may reckon up thirty or three hundred, 

 and still, if, within the last six or nine months, 

 Congress has, in a constitutional manner, made 

 an enactment that prohibits such removal, and 

 the Executive wantonly disregards such enact- 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



ment, and attempts to remove the officer, he 

 incurs the penalty as clearly and as certainly 

 as if there never had been any legislation to 

 the contrary. That subsequent enactment, if 

 it be constitutional, repeals, by its own force, 

 all other prior enactments with which it may 

 conflict ; and in nothing is that enactment more 

 significant than in this, that the President shall 

 not remove any civil officer who has been ap- 

 pointed by and with the advice and consent of 

 the Senate, without the concurrence of that 

 body when it is itself in session. It is true that 

 the right of suspension was given to the Exec- 

 utive during the recess of the Senate; but that 

 poor right of suspension ceased so soon as the 

 Senate convened. 



"But now, not only in face of the decision 

 of the Senate saying that the suspension of the 

 Secretary of War, made during the late recess, 

 was without good cause ; and in the face of 

 the penalties of the act of March 2, 1867, en- 

 titled 'An act regulating the tenure of certain 

 civil offices,' the President, on yesterday, sent 

 into the Senate a message declaring, in terms, 

 that he had removed Edwin M. Stanton, Sec- 

 retary of War, and that, too, in defiance of the 

 sixth section of the act which declares 



That every removal, appointment, or employ- 

 ment made, had, or exercised contrary to the pro- 

 visions of this act, shall be deemed, and are hereby 

 declared, to be ' high misdemeanors ; ' and, upon 

 trial and: conviction, every person guilty thereof shall 

 be punished by a fine not exceeding $10,000, and by 

 imprisonment not exceeding five years, or by both, 

 said punishments, in the discretion of the court. " 



Mr. Farnsworth, of Hlinois, said : " What is 

 there of this question ? A great deal. It is a 

 vast question, and I trust that I come to the 

 discussion of it with a proper spirit, fully real- 

 izing the importance of the issues involved. It 

 is not merely whether Andrew Johnson shall 

 be removed from the office of President of the 

 United States. There are other and greater 

 and deeper questions depending upon it the 

 question whether the Union sentiment in the 

 ten disorganized States of this .country shall be 

 crushed out ; whether the rebel power shall be 

 restored in these States, and shall be given the 

 supremacy for all time to come ; whether the 

 Government shall be maintained, and whether 

 the fruits which we gathered and earned so 

 richly and so well during four years of bloody 

 war shall be wrested from the hands of the lib- 

 erty-loving people of this country, or whether 

 they shall be kept and enjoyed. I care little 

 for Andrew Johnson. I have never had a 

 doubt, for a month past, that he would yet be 

 impeached; that the evil which was in the 

 man would come out, would develop 'Itself, and 

 from step to step it has been developing itself, 

 until be caps the climax by these most flagrant 

 and palpable violations, not only of the law, 

 but of the supreme law, the Constitution of the 

 United States." 



Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, said: "The 

 mere violation of law does not, I repeat, con- 

 stitute my arraignment against the acting Pres- 



