IMPEACHMENT. 



365 



right and duty as President of the United States, com- 

 municated to Congress his views and opinions in 

 regard to such acts or resolutions thereof, as, being 

 submitted to him as President of the United States, 

 in pursuance of the Constitution, seemed to this re- 

 spondent to require such communications ; and he 

 has, from time to time, in the exercise of that freedom 

 of speech which belongs to him as a citizen of the 

 United States, and, in his political relations as Presi- 

 dent of the United States to the people of the Uni- 

 ted States, is upon fit occasions a duty of the^highest 

 obligation, expressed to his fellow-citizens his views 

 and opinions respecting the measures and proceed- 

 ings ot Congress ; and that in such addresses to his 

 fellow-citizens, and in such his communications to 

 Congress, he has expressed his views, opinions, and 

 judgment of and concerning the actual constitution 

 of the two Houses of Congress without representation 

 therein of certain States of the Union, and of the ef- 

 fect that in wisdom and justice, in the opinion and 

 judgment of this respondent, Congress in its legisla- 

 tion and proceedings should give to this political cir- 

 cumstance ; and whatsoever he has thus communi- 

 cated to Congress or addressed to his fellow-citizens 

 or any assemblage thereof, this respondent savs^was 

 and is within and according to his right and privilege 

 as an American citizen, and his right and duty as 

 President of the United' States. 



And this respondent not waiving or at all disparag- 

 ing his right ot freedom of opinion and of freedom of 

 speech, as hereinbefore or hereinafter more particu- 

 larly set forth, but claiming and insisting upon the 

 same, further answering the said tenth article^ says 

 that the views and opinions expressed by this re- 

 spondent in his said addresses to the assemblages 

 of his fellow-citizens, as in said article or in this an- 

 swer thereto mentioned, are not and were not intended 

 to be other or different from those expressed by him 

 in his communications to Congress that the eleven 

 States lately in insurrection never had ceased to be 

 States of the Union, and that they were then entitled 

 to representation in Congress by loyal Eepresenta- 

 tives and Senators as fully as the other States of the 

 Union, and that, consequently, the Congress, as then 

 constituted, was not, in fact, a Congress of all the 

 States, but a Congress of only a part of the States. 

 This respondent, always protesting against the unau- 

 thorized exclusion therefrom of the said eleven States, 

 nevertheless gave his assent to all laws passed by 

 said Congress which did not, in his opinion and 

 judgment, 'violate the Constitution, exercising his 

 constitutional authority of returning bills to said 

 Congress with his objections when they appeared to 

 him to be unconstitutional or inexpedient. 



And, further, this respondent has also expressed 

 the opinion, both in his communications to Congress 

 and in his addresses to the people, that the policy, 

 adopted by Congress in reference to the States lately 

 in insurrection did not tend to peace, harmony, and 

 union, but, on the contrary, did tend to disunion and 

 the permanent disruption of the States,' and that, in 

 following its said policv, laws had been passed by 

 Congress in violation of the fundamental principles 

 of the Government, and which tended to consolida- 

 tion and despotism : and, such being his deliberate 

 opinions, ho would have felt himselt unmindful of 

 the high duties of his office if he had failed to express 

 them in his communications to Congress or in his 

 addresses to the people when called upon by them to 

 express his opinions on matters of public and politi- 

 cal consideration. 



And this respondent, further answering the tenth 

 article, says that he has always claimed and insisted, 

 and now claims and insists, that both in his personal 

 and private capacity of a citizen of the United States, 

 and in the political relations of the President of the 

 United States, to the people of the United States, 

 whose servant, under the duties and responsibilities 

 of the Constitution of the United States, the Presi- 

 dent of the United States is and should alwavs re- 



main, this respondent had and has the full right, 

 and in his office of President of the United States 

 is held to the high duty, of forming, and on fit 

 occasions expressing, opinions of and concerning 

 the legislation of Congress, proposed or completed, 

 in respect of its wisdom, expediency 2 justice, worthi- 

 ness, objects, purposes, and public and political 

 motives and tendencies ; and within and as a part 

 of such right and duty to form, and on fit occasions 

 to express, opinions of and concerning the pub- 

 lic character and conduct, views, purposes, objects, 

 motives, and tendencies of all men engaged in the 

 public service, as well in Congress as otherwise, and 

 under no other rules or limits upon this right of free- 

 dom of opinion and of freedom of speech, or of re- 

 sponsibility and amenability for the actual exercise of 

 such freedom of opinion and freedom of speech than 

 attend upon such rights and their exercise on the 

 part of all other citizens of the United States, and on 

 the part of all their public servants. 



And this respondent, further answering said tenth 

 article, says that the several occasions on which, as 

 is alleged in the several specifications of said article, 

 this respondent addressed his fellow-citizens on sub- 

 jects ol public and political considerations were not, 

 nor was any one of them, sought or planned by this 

 respondent ; but, on the contrary, each of said occa- 

 sions arose upon the exercise of a lawful and accus- 

 tomed right of the people of the United States to call 

 upon their public servants, and express to them 

 their opinions, wishes, and feelings upon matters of 

 public and political consideration, ana to invite from 

 such, their public servants, an expression of their 

 opinionSj views, and feelings on matters of public 

 and political consideration ; and this respondent 

 claims and insists before this honorable court, and 

 before all the people of the United States, that of or 

 concerning this his right of freedom of opinion, and 

 of freedom of speech, and this his exercise of such 

 rights on all matters of public and political consider- 

 ation, and in respect of all public servants, or per- 

 sons whatsoever engaged in or connected therewith, 

 this respondent, as a citizen, or as President of the 

 United States, is not subject to question, inquisition, 

 impeachment, or inculpation, in any form or manner 

 whatsoever. 



And this respondent says that neither the said 

 tenth article, nor any specification thereof, nor any 

 allegation therein contained, touches or relates to 

 any official act or doing of this respondent in the 

 office of President of the United States, or in the 

 discharge of any of its constitutional or legal duties 

 or responsibilities but said article and the specifi- 

 cations and allegations thereof, wholly and in every 

 part thereof, question only the discretion or pro- 

 priety of freedom of opinion or freedom of speech, 

 as exercised by this respondent as a citizen of the 

 United States in his personal right and capacity, and 

 without allegation or imputation against this re- 

 spondent of the violation of any law of the United 

 States, touching or relating to freedom of speech or 

 its exercise by the citizens of the United States, or 

 by this respondent as one of the said citizens or 

 otherwise ; and he denies that, by reason of any mat- 

 ter in said article or its specifications alleged, he has 

 said or done any thing indecent or unbecoming in 

 the Chief Magistrate of the United States, or that he 

 has brought the high office of the President of the 

 United States into contempt, ridicule, or disgrace, or 

 that he has committed or has been guilty of a high 

 misdemeanor in office. 



ANSWER TO ABTICLE XI. 



And in answer to the eleventh article this respon- 

 dent denies that on the 18th day of August, in the 

 year 1866, at the city of Washington, in the District 

 of Columbia, he did, by public speech or otherwise, 

 declare or affirm, in substance or at all, that the 

 Thirty-ninth Congress of the United States was not 

 a Congress of the United States authorized by the 



