076 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



could descend to hli posterity. Tet In the present 

 BOOM of Representatives there am men ot whom 

 some of the other members may be of opinion Unit 

 they committed treason against our Government 

 eonie ten or twelve yean since, and might claim that 

 one cause of the election of some of them wait that 

 their constituencies knew that they had committed 

 such treason, sympathized with them in it, and 

 chose them as their representative* because of that 

 sympathy ; and we of the House of Representatives 

 would be on our pan obliged to admit that in order 

 that they might be our associates we removed con- 

 stitutional disabilities to permit them to sit with us 

 by virtue of that election. Therefore for this reason 

 your committee might find itself compelled to dis- 

 *ent from this proposition stated in that report, thut 

 ' it is hardly a case to be supposed that any con- 

 stituency with a lull knowledge of a man's guilt or 

 moral turpitude will elect him." That depends upon 

 the definition which the constituency gives to the 

 act done as to its guilty quality. 



We must remember that this power of expulsion 

 has been frequently used for political purposes, and 

 may be so again. Not many yean ago the House 

 of Representatives witnessed a motion for expulsion 

 of the " old man eloquent." once a President of the 

 United States, as "tainted with crime," because be 

 presented a petition for the abolition of slavery. 

 Nay, more, a movement for expulsion, changed to 

 vote of censure, passed by 185 to 00, against Joshua 

 R. Giddings, of Ohio, as a " tainted man," unfit for 

 association with his fellow-roemben, because he 

 presented a series of resolutions, declaring that some 

 African negroes, who having endured the horrors of 

 the middle passage in a slave-ship, had the natural 

 and inherent right to rise upon their capton and op- 

 pressors at sea, and regain their liberty taken from 

 them by fraud and force. 



No life can be so blameless ; no services so ex- 

 alted ; no action so just, as always to guard a man 

 against the blasts of passion and prejudice which 

 sometimes sweep over a deliberative assemHy. 



What then becomes of the doctrine put forward In 

 that report, that the right to this process of " purga- 

 tion and purification" must be maintained to pre- 

 vent those tainted by crime from sitting with us f 

 Or, as expressed in that report, " that it seems to us 

 absurd to say an election has given a man political 

 absolution for an offense which was unknown to his 

 constituents." The offense of which we have spoken 

 was known not only to the constituents but to the 

 House, but an election has followed notwithstanding. 



But the learned committee further declares as a 

 reason why no fixed rule of law should be adopted 

 by the House in cases of expulsion, as follows : 



That no role, however narrow or limited, can prevent 

 "(he oxrrol-c of this power of pnnrntlon nnrt parities, 

 lion,'* " If two-thirds of the Honse lOmll see fit to expel 

 a man Vcauie they do not like bis religion, or political 

 principles, or iih'ont any reason at all. They have no 

 power, and there Is no remedy, except by appeal to the 

 I I'" ' 



The minds of your committee very much reluct at 

 such a doctrine. We deny th* power, that is the 

 legal power while we admit the brute force we 

 deny the right, and there can be no legal power 

 when there is no legal right. 



It b for us now to make the precedent that shall 

 restrain bad men in bad times from an exercise of an 

 assumed wrongful power. The only safety > 

 for the constituency or the Representative must lie 

 found in a steady line of precedents guiding the 

 action of the House in the matter of expulsion 

 founded on principle* of justice and legal rights 

 oanfuily retrnine,| within the limits of constitution- 

 si law. Nay. who shall vote as s precedent for anv 

 xsreiso r,f thi claimed power of" purification and 

 purgation I" May not the next House <' 



i in two-thirds of its members of 

 Republican' of the most pronounced tvpe, under a 

 - established by the report of the learned 



committee, if sanctioned by the House, come back 

 at the next session and undertake the work of " pur- 

 gation and purification" from this House <>! 

 whom they believe committed treasonable u< 

 years ago I And they will find no legal impedii 

 for paraon or removal of disabilities does IM extend 

 to cases of impeachment by express constitutional 

 exception, and the learned committee in.-ist that the 

 causes justifying impeachment ami expulsion are 

 inseparable. 



Who, then, will dare assert that for oil. 

 mitted ton years ago, yea, five years or one year be- 

 fore the election ot a member, the House ha-- : 

 to expel at its caprice under a constitution;, 

 vision which declares " the House may pun'u-h it* 

 members for disorderly behavior, and with th 

 currence of two-thirds expel a member!" 



The case of Matteson, cited l.y the learnt.: 

 mittce, it seems to your committee, U peculiarly un- 

 fortunate to sustain the postulate. But Matt, 

 case is in so many respects like that in. 

 cration that it deserves more than the passing notice 

 thut the report gives it. 



Matteson had been engaged in a case of bribery 

 and had been reflected ; the charge bad been made 

 during the reelection and had been denied and in 

 the last days of the short session before he was to 

 take his seat in the next House a resolution of ex- 

 pulsion was brought against him for the crime of 

 being engaged in bribery while a member of, and for 

 slandering the then present Hou-- 

 was taken upon the resolution he sent in his resig- 

 nation, so that the resolution of expulsion was laid 

 upon the table, while the other two resolutions find- 

 ing him guilty of the crime were pusM .1. 



At the session of the next Congress another reso- 

 lution of expulsion was introduced for the 

 cause and in the. same words, but was antagonised 

 because the act was done while Mattcsou was a 

 member of a former Congress, and after the fullest 

 discussion was laid on the table by the dedsii 

 of 96 yeas to 69 nays in s House > 

 such parliamentarians as Campbell, Covode. Winter 

 Davis. Dawcs, Famsworth, (iitldinirs, Urow, llarlan, 

 OlinJrike. Seward, John Sherman, Wade, W nlbridge, 

 and Woshburnc, voting in the affirmative in a case 

 where the guilty act was proved and admitted. So 

 that we dissent from the conclusion of the learned 

 committee, that the case of Matteson furnishes no 

 precedent because, aa " the whole subject was uid- 

 ed, being laid on the table." it is impossible to say 

 what was decided by the Hoi 



We find ourselves, therefore, from the entire lack 

 of precedent ami upon the reason of the case, 

 polled to differ in tlie fullest manner from the doc- 

 trine of that report, in regard to " purification and 

 purgation ; " and because, among other reasons, 

 your committee cannot well see how the fnct 

 Knowledge of the constituency that their represent- 

 ative has heretofore committed a crime, enn pre- 

 vent his presence "bringing odium and reproach 

 upon the body of which he is a member," wlieh 

 would attach to it because of the same crimes, if his 

 constituents did not know them at the time of his 

 election. It seems to us the impure man would 

 " purification and purgation " in equal degree, irre- 

 spective of the knowledge of his constituents. 



Our opinion upon the whole matter, therefore, is 

 that the right of representation is the right of the 

 constituency and not that of the 1.'. j 

 and so long aa he does nothing which is disorderly 

 or renders him unfit to be in the House while n 

 member thereof, that except for the safity .f the 

 House or the members thereof, or for it own pro- 

 tection, the House has no right or legal constitution- 

 al jurisdiction or power to expel. We sec no con- 

 stitutional warrant for his expulsion upon am 

 ground, and especially not upon the ground of pur- 

 gation and purification, as set forth in the report of 

 Hi.- learned committee, agninst which your commit- 

 tee must earnestly and respectfully protest. 



