146 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



submit to the Senate for decision. The ques- 

 tion is, has the Senator from Kentucky the 

 right to the floor? The Chair will put the 

 question to the Senate in that form, and as 

 many as agree that he* has the right will say 

 ay, and those opposed will say no." 



The question being put, it was determined in 

 the affirmative. 



The President pro tempore : " The Senator 

 from Kentucky is entitled to the floor, and will 

 proceed." 



Mr. Davis : "Mr. President, now, with much 

 cheerfulness, I yield the floor for the purpose 

 indicated by the Senator from Michigan." 



Mr. Howard: "Then, Mr. President, with the 

 leave of the Senate, I beg to present the fol- 

 io wing resolution : ' ' 



Resolved, That the message of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives relating to the impeachment of Andrew 

 Johnson, President of the United States, be referred 

 to a select committee of seven, to consider and report 

 thereon. 



Mr. Oonkling, of New York, said: "Having 

 before me the proceedings of the Senate in 1862 

 on the impeachment of Judge Humphreys, of 

 Tennessee, I suggest to the Senator who offers 

 this resolution, for convenience' sake, that he 

 include the words 'to be appointed by the 

 Chair,' so that the resolution will read 'a 

 select committee of seven, to be appointed by 

 the Chair,' etc. It will save time to insert 

 these words, and be within the precedents." 



Mr. Howard: "I accept the suggestion." 



The President pro tempore: "The resolution 

 is so modified." 



The resolution was agreed to ; and the Pres- 

 ident pro tempore subsequently announced the 

 committee to consist of the following Senators : 

 Mr. Howard, Mr. Trumbull, Mr. Conkling, Mr. 

 Edmunds, Mr. Morton, Mr. Pomeroy, and Mr. 

 Johnson. 



In the Senate, on February 29th, Mr. Davis, 

 of Kentucky, offered the following as instruc- 

 tions to the committee on impeachment rules : 



That the committee report, as a substitute for the 

 rules just read, the following : 



That the Constitution of the United States having 

 appointed the Senate to be the court to try all im- 

 peachments; and having provided that the Senate 

 shall be composed of two Senators from each State ; 

 and the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South 

 Carolina, Georgia, Alabama ? Mississippi, Arkansas, 

 Texas, Louisiana, and Florida having each chosen 

 two Senators ; and those Senators not having been 

 admitted to their seats in the Senate, while they con- 

 tinue to be excluded the Senate cannot be formed 

 into a constitutional and valid court of impeachment 

 for the trial of articles of impeachment preferred 

 against Andrew Johnson, President of the United 

 States. 



The motion to recommit with instructions, 

 after some debate, was lost by the following 

 vote : 



YEAS Messrs. Davis and McCreery 2. 



NAYS Messrs. Anthony, Cameron, Cattell, Chand- 

 ler, Colo, Conkling Conness, Corbett, Dixon, Drake, 

 Edmunds, Ferry, Fessenden, Fowler, Frelinghuysen, 

 Hendricks. Howard, Howe, Johnson, Morgan, Morrili 

 of Maine, Merrill of Vermont, Morton, Norton, Nye, 



Patterson of Tennessee, Pomeroy, Eamsey, Eoss, 

 Sherman,Sumner, Thayer, Tipton, Trumbull, Van 

 Winkle, Wade, Willey, Williams, and Yates 39. 



ABSENT Messrs. Bayard, Buckalew, Cragin, Doo- 

 little, Grimes, Harlan, Henderson, Patterson of New 

 Hampshire, Saulsbury, Sprague, Stewart, and Wilson 

 12. (See IMPEACHMENT.) 



In the Senate, on June 23d, Mr. Sumner, of 

 Massachusetts, offered the following resolu- 

 tions, which were read and ordered to be 

 printed : 



Resolutions declaring the constitutional responsibility 

 of Senators for their votes on impeachment. 



Whereas, a pretension has been put forth to the 

 effect that the vote of a Senator on an impeachment 

 is so far different in character from his vote on any 

 other question that the people have no right to criti- 

 cise or consider it ; and whereas such pretension, if 

 not discountenanced, is calculated to impair that free- 

 dom of judgment which belongs to the people on all 

 that is done by their Eepresentatives : Therefore, in 

 order to remove all doubts on this question 2 and to 

 declare the constitutional right of the people in cases 

 of impeachment 



1. Resolved, That, even assuming that the Senate 

 is a court in the exercise of judicial power, Senators 

 cannot claim that their votes are exempt from the 

 judgment of the people; that the Supreme Court, 

 when it has undertaken to act on questions essentially 

 political in character, has not escaped this judgment ; 

 that the decisions of this high tribunal in support of 

 slavery have been openly condemned ; that the mem- 

 orable utterance known as the Dred Scott decision 

 was indignantly denounced and repudiated, while the 

 Chief Justice who pronounced it became a mark for 

 censure and rebuke ; and that plainly the votes of 

 Senators on an impeachment cannot enjoy an im- 

 munity from popular judgment which has been 

 denied to the Supreme Court, with Taney as Chief 

 Justice. 



-. J.WVVV,. That the Senate is not at any time a 

 court invested with judicial power, but that it is al- 

 ways a Senate with specific functions, declared by 



gress may from time to time ordain and establish," 

 while it is further provided that " the Senate shall have 

 the sole power to try all impeachments," thus posi- 

 tively making a distinction between the judicial power 

 and the power to try impeachments ; that the Senate, 

 on an impeachment, does not exercise any portion of 

 the judicial power, but another and different power, 

 exclusively delegated to the Senate, having for its 

 sole object removal from office and disqualification 

 therefor ; that, by the terms of the Constitution, there 

 may be, after conviction on impeachment, a further 

 trial and punishment, " according to law," thus mak- 

 ing a discrimination between a proceeding by impeach- 

 ment and a proceeding " according to law ; " that the 

 proceeding oy impeachment is not " according to 

 law," and is not attended by legal punishment, but is 

 of an opposite character, and from beginning to end 

 political, being instituted by a political body on 

 account of political offences, being conducted before 

 another political body having political power only, 

 and ending in a judgment which is political only ; 

 and therefore the vote of a Senator on impeachment, 

 though different in form, is not different in responsi 

 bility from his vote on any other political question ; 

 nor can any Senator on such an occasion claim immu- 

 nity from that just accountability which the repre- 

 sentative at all times owes to his constituents. 



3. Resolved, That Senators, in all that they do, 

 are under the constant obligation of an oath ; binding 

 them to the strictest rectitude ; that on an impeach- 

 ment they take a further oath, according to the 

 requirement of the Constitution, which says, " Sena- 

 tors, when sitting to try impeachment, shall be on 



