140 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



or shall give a letter of authority, or issue a 

 commission, to any person without the consent 

 of the Senate, he is guilty of what ? The law 

 says of a high misdemeanor. And, under and 

 by virtue of the Constitution, the President 

 can be impeached for what ? For high crimes 

 or misdemeanors. This law declares the is- 

 suing a commission to, or giving a letter^of 

 authority to, or appointing to or removing 

 from office, any person without the advice and 

 consent of the Senate of the United States, 

 shall be a high misdemeanor, which is within 

 the meaning and within the pale of the Consti- 

 tution of the United States. 



"Now, what is the evidence presented to this 

 body by one of its committees ? It is of this 

 character: The Secretary of War, Edwin M. 

 Stanton, has been declared by a solemn vote 

 of the Senate to be the Secretary of War, by 

 virtue of what ? By virtue of an appointment 

 to that office ; by reason of the fact that An- 

 drew Johnson did not relieve him from office 

 when he had the right to present the name of 

 somebody else soon after his taking the pres- 

 idential chair not the right to turn him out, 

 but the right to nominate some one else to the 

 Senate and ask them to confirm him to that 

 office. That the President failed to do. Then, 

 acting under the provisions of this statute, the 

 President suspended Mr. Stanton as Secretary 

 of War, but the Senate passed upon that act, 

 and decided that the reasons given by the Pres- 

 ident for suspending Mr. Stanton were not sat- 

 isfactory; and, accordingly, by virtue of this 

 law, Mr. Stanton was confirmed and reinstated 

 in his position as Secretary of War. 



" Now, all this having been done, it cannot 

 certainly be claimed that the President, in his 

 recent course in regard to Mr. Stanton, has 

 acted without any intention of violating the 

 law. Nor can it be claimed that the President 

 is ignorant of the law. The gentleman from 

 Kentucky (Mr. Beck) is too good a lawyer not 

 to be aware of the fact that the law presumes 

 every man to be acquainted with the laws. 

 That may be a violent presumption in the case 

 of Andrew Johnson, yet that is an axiom of 

 the law. 



" That being, then, the presumption, that the 

 President knows the law, having been notified 

 by the Senate of its action, and of the conse- 

 quent operation of the law, then if, in violation 

 of that same law, Andrew Johnson did issue 

 an order removing Secretary Stanton from the 

 War Office, and, in the language of this statute, 

 did 'issue a letter of authority' to Lorenzo 

 Thomas to take possession of that office, and 

 act as Secretary of War ad interim, I ask the 

 gentleman from Kentucky, or any other lawyer 

 in this House, to tell me, under this statute, 

 what has the President done ? Sir, he has vio- 

 lated its provisions, he has committed a high 

 misdemeanor. Look at the evidence and then 

 read the law." 



Mr. Holman, of Indiana, said : " What are 

 the relations of the President of the United 



States to the executive powers of the Govern- 

 ment, and especially, sir, what are his relations 

 to the members of his Cabinet ? The Consti- 

 tution itself clearly defines these relations and 

 renders him directly responsible for the man- 

 ner in which the executive power of the Gov- 

 ernment is exercised. In the language of the 

 Constitution, 'the executive power shall be 

 vested in a President of the United States of 

 America.' 'Before he enters on the execu- 

 tion of his office he shall take the following 

 oath or affirmation : I do solemnly swear (or 

 affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office 

 of President of the United States, and will, to 

 the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and 

 defend the Constitution of the United States ; ' 

 and ' he shall take care that the laws be faith- 

 fully executed.' And again, 'he shall nomi- 

 nate, and, by and with the advice and consent 

 of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors and 

 other public ministers and consuls, judges of 

 the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the 

 United States whose appointments are not 

 herein otherwise provided for.' Is it possible, 

 after these eighty years of experience, that any 

 gentleman can believe that the President of 

 the United States can well execute the duties 

 of his high office, and properly 'take care that 

 the laws be faithfully executed,' without any 

 control of the chief agencies the heads of de- 

 partments by which the executive power is 

 to be exercised ? 



" Can the country justly hold the Chief Ex- 

 ecutive responsible and yet render him power- 

 less by filling the high offices of his depart- 

 ment with persons hostile to the success of his 

 Administration? During these eighty years 

 of our history, through all these Administra- 

 tions, has it ever been dreamed, sir, that the 

 President of the United States could properly 

 exercise his high functions and successfully ad- 

 minister the Government without a Cabinet in 

 harmony with himself? No matter what party 

 has been in power, Democrat or Federalist, 

 Whig or Republican, and no matter whether 

 the Congress and the Executive were in har- 

 mony or not, the common interests of the coun- 

 try have secured to the President a body of 

 friendly counsellors, who as heads of depart- 

 ments have given unity and efficiency to the 

 Administration. The public good demanded 

 it, and hitherto party spirit has never been so 

 intense or vindictive as to seek partisan advan- 

 tages at the expense of the interests of the 

 country. The framers of the Constitution 

 could not have intended, while imposing such 

 high responsibilities on the President, that the 

 very duties imposed upon him might be de- 

 feated by the unfriendly officers executing 

 high official trusts. Mr. Madison, therefore, 

 claimed the power of removal of an executive 

 officer. The appointing power is in the Presi- 

 dent, with the right of the Senate to reject or 

 confirm, but if the Senate refuses to confirm 

 the nomination the powers of the office have 

 been uniformly performed by some other offi- 



