CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



141 



cer of the Government. The first section of 

 the Tenure-of-Office Law, which was passed 

 on the 2d day of March, 1867, and manifestly 

 intended to embarrass the administration of 

 Mr. Johnson, is as follows : 



SEO. 1. Every person holding any official office to 

 which he has heen appointed by and with the advice 

 and consent of the Senate, and every person who 

 shall hereafter be appointed to such office, and shall 

 become duly qualified to act therein, is and shall be 

 entitled to hold such office until a successor shall 

 have been in like manner appointed and duly quali- 

 fied, except as herein otherwise provided : Provided, 

 That the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of 

 War, of the Navy, and of the Interior, the Postmas- 

 ter-General, and the Attorney-General, shall hold 

 their offices respectively for and during the term of 

 the President by whom they may have been ap- 

 pointed and for one month thereafter, subject to re- 

 moval by and with the advice and consent of the 

 Senate. 



"Edwin M. Stanton was appointed Secre- 

 tary of War and the appointment confirmed 

 by the Senate during the first term of Mr. Lin- 

 coln. He was never reappointed either by Mr. 

 Lincoln or by Mr. Johnson. If the Tenure-of- 

 Office Law had been enforced when Mr. Lin- 

 coln's first term expired, it is manifest that the 

 term of Mr. Stanton, as Secretary of War, 

 would have expired one month after Mr. Lin- 

 coln's second term commenced, and would 

 have expired one month after Mr. Lincoln 

 ceased to be President. 



" This whole question, as I have already re- 

 marked, is therefore a question of construc- 

 tion. The proviso of the first section of this 

 Tenure-of-Office Law certainly involves the 

 very point here in dispute ; the very question 

 involved in this attempt at impeachment." 



Mr. Ingersoll, of Illinois, sent the following 

 telegram to the Clerk to be read : 



SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, ) 

 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, February 22, 1868. j 

 The usurpations of Andrew Johnson have created 

 a profound sensation in this State. His last act is 

 the act of a traitor. His treason must be checked. 

 The duty of Congress seems plain. The people of 

 Illinois attached to the Union, I firmly believe, de- 

 mand his impeachment, and will heartily sustain 

 such action by our Congress. The peace of the coun- 

 try is not to be trifled with by this presumptuous dem- 

 agogue. We know the national Congress will pro- 

 ceed wisely and cautiously, but let it proceed. Mill- 

 ions of loyal hearts are panting to stand by the stars 

 and stripes. Have no fear. All will be well. Lib- 

 erty and order will again triumph. 



E. J. OGLESBY, Governor. 



Mr. Washburne, of Illinois, said : "In my 

 judgment the safety of the country, the cause 

 of good government, the preservation of con- 

 stitutional right and of public liberty depend 

 upon the prompt impeachment of the Presi- 

 dent of the United States. Let him be im- 

 peached for his last great crime that he has 

 committed against the Constitution and laws 

 of his country. Let him be promptly tried, 

 and, if found guilty, let him be removed from 

 the office he has disgraced. His longer reten- 

 tion in office is a perpetual and enduring men- 

 ace against the peace and happiness and pros- 



perity of the nation. His whole official career 

 as President has been marked by a wicked dis- 

 regard of all the obligations of public duty 

 and by a degree of perfidy and treachery and 

 turpitude unheard of in the history of the 

 rulers of a free people ; his personal and offi- 

 cial character has made him the opprobrium 

 of both hemispheres, and brought ineffable dis- 

 grace on the American name. As mendacious 

 as he is malignant, he has used his high position 

 in attempting to break down and destroy the 

 noblest, the bravest, the best in the land. 

 His administration has been a constant and 

 prolonged warfare against all the material in- 

 terests of the country ; it has prostrated busi- 

 ness ; it has oppressed labor ; it has destroyed 

 values ; it has impaired the public credit and 

 sapped the public morals. Surrounded by red- 

 handed rebels, advised and counselled by the 

 worst men that ever crawled, like filthy rep- 

 tiles, at the footstool of power, the President 

 has used all the vast authority of the Govern- 

 ment to prevent a reunion of the States, the 

 restoration of harmony and peace and happi- 

 ness to the country. He has brought the loyal 

 men in the unreconstructed States to a condi- 

 tion from the contemplation of which all men 

 must recoil with horror. Sustained and sup- 

 ported by the Administration, murder, rapine, 

 incendiarism, robbery, and all the crimes stalk 

 through that whole land with a bloody step ; 

 and every day he remains in office adds to the 

 long list of victims of rebel vengeance, cruelty, 

 and hate. 



" Under such a President nearly every depart- 

 ment of the Government has become demoral- 

 ized and corrupt to an extent which can find 

 no parallel in the history of any country in any 

 age. The Attorney-General, not satisfied with 

 being the medium through which so many coun- 

 terfeiters, mail-robbers, and public plunderers 

 have been pardoned and turned loose upon th.e 

 country, has, with ostentatious and boastful 

 audacity, proclaimed in the very presence of 

 the highest judicial tribunal of the land that 

 he will not vindicate the laws of the country 

 passed by a vote of two-thirds of both branches 

 of Congress. Look, sir, at the Navy Depart- 

 ment attempting, in the first instance, to im- 

 pose upon this House fraudulent estimates of 

 nearly twenty-five million dollars in order to 

 render a Republican Congress amenable to the 

 charge of extravagance; look at its imbecile 

 management; its profligacy, its extravagance, 

 its jobberies, and its corruptions and perse- 

 cutions, under color of law, of some of our 

 bravest and most distinguished naval officers. 

 Look at the administration of the Treasury 

 Department, characterized by the most mon- 

 strous and appalling frauds, with countless mill- 

 ions of revenue stolen to go into the pockets 

 of thieves, partisans, and plunderers, or to 

 make up a vast political fund to demoralize 

 and corrupt the people, and to secure the elec- 

 tion of a Democratic and semi-rebel President. 

 Look at the Interior Department, with its land 



