144 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



to turn to the proceedings of the Senate noti- 

 fying him of his illegal and void conduct, and 

 then to consider that he has since persevered in 

 attempting to enforce it. Indeed, to show his 

 utter disregard of the laws of his country, we 

 have only to turn to his last annual message, 

 in which he proclaims to the public that the 

 laws of Congress are unconstitutional and not 

 binding on the people. Who, after that, can 

 say that such a man is fit to occupy the execu- 

 tive chair, whose duty it is to inculcate obe- 

 dience to those very laws, and see that they are 

 faithfully obeyed ? Then the great beauty of 

 this remedial and preventive process is clearly 

 demonstrated. He is dull and blind who can- 

 not see its necessity, and the beneficial pur- 

 poses of the trial by impeachment. 



"Now, in defiance of this law, Andrew John- 

 son, on the 21st day of February, 1868, issued 

 his commission or letter of authority to one 

 Lorenzo Thomas, appointing him Secretary of 

 War ad interim, and commanded him to take 

 possession of the Department of War, and to 

 eject the incumbent, E. M. Stanton, then in 

 lawful possession of said office. Here, if this 

 act stood alone, would be an undeniable official 

 misdemeanor not only a misdemeanor per se, 

 but declared to be so by the act itself, and the 

 party made indictable and punishable in a crim- 

 inal proceeding. If Andrew Johnson escapes 

 with bare removal from office, if he be not 

 fined and incarcerated in the penitentiary after- 

 ward under criminal proceedings, he may thank 

 the weakness or the clemency of Congress, and 

 not his own innocence. 



"We sh'all propose to prove on the trial that 

 Andrew Johnson was guilty of misprision of 

 bribery by offering to General Grant, if he 

 would unite with him in his lawless violence, 

 to assume in his stead the penalties and to en- 

 dure the imprisonment denounced by the law. 

 Bribery is one of the offences specifically 

 enumerated for which the President may be 

 impeached and removed from office. By the 

 Constitution, article two, section two, the Pres- 

 ident has power to nominate and, by and with 

 the advice and consent of the Senate, to ap- 

 point all officers of the United States whose 

 appointments are not therein otherwise pro- 

 vided for, and which shall be established bylaw, 

 and to fill up all vacancies that may happen 

 during the recess of the Senate, by granting 

 commissions which shall expire at the end of 

 their next session. Nowhere, either in the 

 Constitution or by statute, has the President 

 power to create a vacancy during the session 

 of the Senate, and fill it without the advice and 

 consent of the Senate; and yet, on the 21st 

 day of February, 1868, while the Senate was 

 in session, he notified the head of the War 

 Department that he was removed from office, 

 and his successor ad interim appointed. Here 

 is a plain recorded violation of the Constitution 

 and laws, which, if it stood alone, would make 

 every honest and intelligent man give his vote 

 for impeachment. The President had perse- 



vered in his lawless course through a long 

 series of unjustifiable acts. When the so-called 

 Confederate States of America were conquered, 

 and had laid down their arms and surrendered 

 their territory to the victorious Union, the 

 government and final disposition of the con- 

 quered country belonged to Congress alone, 

 according to every principle of the law of 

 nations. 



" Neither the Executive nor the judiciary 

 had any right to interfere with it except so far 

 as was necessary to control it by military rule 

 until the sovereign power of the nation had pro- 

 vided for its civil administration. No power 

 but Congress had any right to say whether 

 ever or when they should be admitted to the 

 Union as States, and entitled to the privileges 

 of the Constitution of the United States. And 

 yet Andrew Johnson, with unblushing hardi- 

 hood, undertook to rule them by his own power 

 alone ; to lead them into full communion with 

 the Union ; direct them what governments to 

 erect and what constitutions to adopt, and to 

 send Representatives and Senators to Con- 

 gress according to his instructions. When 

 admonished by express act of Congress, more 

 than once repeated, he disregarded the warn- 

 ing and continued his lawless usurpation. He 

 is since known to have obstructed the reestab- 

 lishment of those governments by the author- 

 ity of Congress, and has advised the inhabitants 

 to resist the legislation of Congress. In my 

 judgment his conduct with regard to that trans- 

 action was a high-handed usurpation of power, 

 which ought long ago to have brought him to 

 impeachment and trial, and to have removed 

 him from his position of great mischief. He 

 has been lucky in thus far escaping through 

 false logic and false law. But his then acts, 

 which will on the trial be shown to be atrocious, 

 are open evidence of his wicked determination 

 to subvert the laws of his country. 



"I trust that, when we come to vote upon 

 this question, we shall remember that, although 

 it is the duty of the President to see that the 

 laws be executed, the sovereign power of the 

 nation rests in Congress, who have been placed 

 around the Executive as muniments to defend 

 his rights, and as watchmen to enforce his 

 obedience to the law and the Constitution. His 

 oath to obey the Constitution and our duty to 

 compel him to do it are a tremendous obliga- 

 tion, heavier than was ever assumed by mortal 

 rulers. We are to protect or to destroy the lib- 

 erty and happiness of a mighty people, and to 

 take care that they progress in civilization, 

 and defend themselves against every kind oY 

 tyranny. As we deal with the first great po- 

 litical malefactor, so will be the result of our 

 efforts to perpetuate the happiness and good 

 government of the human race. The God of 

 our fathers, who inspired them with the thought 

 of universal freedom, will hold us responsible 

 for the noble institutions which they projected 

 and expected us to carry out. This is not to 

 be the temporary triumph of.a political party, 



