out against him, this great exculpatory fact must absolve him from all criminal liability. he looked only to the Constitution of his country and to the people. after day, provocations such as few men have ever been called upon to meet. No man could have met them with more sublime patience. Sooner or later, however, I knew the explosion must come. And when it did come my only wonder was that it had been so long delayed. Yes, Senators, with all his faults, the President has been more sinned against than sinning. Fear not, then, to acquit him. The Constitution of the country is as safe in his hands from 'violence as it was in the hands of Washington. But if, Senators, you condemn him, if you strip him of the robes of his office, if you degrade him to the utmost stretch of your power, mark the prophecy? The strong arms of the people will be about him.. They will find a way to raise him from any depths to which you may consign him, and we shall live to see him redeemed, and to hear the majestic voice of the people, "Well done, faithful servant, you shall have your reward!" And now, Senators, I have done with the law Yes, Senators, I have seen that man tried and the facts of the case. There remains for as few have been tried. I have seen his conme, however, a duty yet to be performed-onefidence abused. I have seen him endure, day of solemn import and obligation-a duty to my client, to my former chief, to my friend. There may be those among you, Senators, who cannot find a case of guilt against the President. There may be those among you who, not satisfied that a case for impeachment has yet arisen, are fearful of the consequences of an acquittal. You may entertain vague apprehensions that, flushed with the success of an acquittal, the President will proceed to acts of violence and revolution. Senators, you do not know or understand the man. I cannot say that you willfully misunderstand him; for I, too, though never an extreme party man, have felt more than once, in the heat of party conflicts, the same bitter and uncompromising spirit that may now animate you. The time has been when I looked upon General Jackson as the most dangerous of tyrants. Time has been when, day after day, I expected to see him inaugurate a revolution; and yet, after his administration was crowned with success and sustained by the people, I lived to see him gracefully surrender his great powers to the hands that conferred them, and, under the softening influences of time, I came to regard || him, not as a tyrant, but as one of the most honest and patriotic of men. Now, listen for a moment to one who, perhaps, understands Andrew Johnson better than most of you; for his opportunities have been greater. When, nearly two years ago, he called me from the pursuits of professional life to take a seat in his Cabinet, I answered the call under a sense of public duty. I came here almost a stranger to him and to every member of his Cabinet except Mr. Stanton. We had been friends for many years. Sena- || tors, need I tell you that all my tendencies are conservative? You, Mr. Chief Justice, who haye known me for the third of a century, can bear me witness. Law, not arms, is my profession. From the moment that I was honored with a seat in the Cabinet of Mr. Johnson not a step was taken that did not come under my observation, not a word was said that escaped my attention. I regarded him closely in Cabinet, and in still more private and confidential conversation. I saw him often tempted with bad advice. I knew that evil counselors were more than once around him. I observed him with the most intense anxiety. But never, in word, in deed, in thought, in action, did I discover in that man anything but loyalty to the Constitution and the laws. He stood firm as a rock against all temptation to abuse his own powers or to exercise those which were not conferred upon him. Steadfast and selfreliant in the midst of all difficulty, when dangers threatened, when temptations were strong, C. I.-50. But if, Senators, as I cannot believe, but as has been boldly said with almost official sanction, your votes have been canvassed and the doom of the President is sealed, then let that judgment not be pronounced in this Senate Chamber; not here, where our Camillus in the hour of our greatest peril, single-handed, met and baffled the enemies of the Republic; not here, where he stood faithful among the faithless; not here, where he fought the good fight for the Union and the Constitution; not in this Chamber, whose walls echo with that clarion voice that, in the days of our greatest danger, carried hope and comfort to many a desponding heart, strong as an army, with banners. No, not here. Seek out rather the darkest and gloomiest chamber in the subterranean recesses of this Capitol, where the cheerful light of day never enters. There erect the altar and immolate the victim. Mr. STANBERY, after proceeding some time, said: With the consent of the Senate, Mr. Chief Justice, to relieve me I would ask permission that my young friend at my side. may read from my brief a few pages while I gather a little strength for what I wish to say. Mr. ANTHONY. The counsel evidently is laboring very painfully in his endeavor to address the Senate, and I move that the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment, adjourn until Monday at twelve o'clock. Several SENATORS. Oh, no; let the argument be read. Mr. STANBERY. I do not ask an adjourn ment. Mr. ANTHONY. I withdraw the motion if the counsel does not desire it. Mr. WILLIAM F. PEDDRICK thereupon pro ceeded to read the argument, and continued the reading until two minutes to two o'clock. Mr. JOHNSON. I move that the court take a recess for fifteen minutes. The motion was agreed to; and at the expiration of the recess the Chief Justice resumed the chair and called the Senate to order. Mr. PEDDRICK continued to read the argument for some time, when Mr. STANBERY resumed and concluded. Mr. HOWARD. I move that the Senate, sitting for the trial of the impeachment, adjourn until Monday at twelve o'clock. The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, sitting for the trial of the impeachment, adjourned. MONDAY, May 4, 1868. The Chief Justice of the United States took the chair. The usual proclamation having been made by the Sergeant-at-Arms, The Managers of the impeachment on the part of the House of Representatives and Messrs. Nelson and Groesbeck, of counsel for the respondent, appeared and took the seats assigned to them respectively. The members of the House of Representa tives, as in Committee of the Whole, preceded by Mr. E. B. WASHBURNE, chairman of that committee, and accompanied by the Speaker and Clerk, appeared and were conducted to the seats provided for them. The Journal of Saturday's proceedings of the Senate, sitting for the trial of the impeach ment, was read. The CHIEF JUSTICE. Mr. Manager BINGHAM will proceed with the argument on the part of the House of Representatives. Hon. JOHN A. BINGHAM, one of the Managers of the impeachment on the part of the House of Representatives, closed the argument, as follows: day of April, in the year of our Lord 1865, the broken battalions of treason and armed resistance to law surrendered to the victorious legions of the Republic. On that day, not without sacrifice, not without suffering, not without martyrdom, the laws were vindicated. On that day the word went out all over our own sorrow stricken land and to every nationality that the Republic, the last refuge of constitutional liberty, the last sanctuary of an inviolable justice, was saved by the virtue and valor of its children. On the 14th day of April, in the year of our Lord 1865, amid the joy and gladness of the people for their great deliverance, here in the capital, by an assassin's hand, fell Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, slain not for his crimes, but for his virtues, and especially for his fidelity to duty-that highest word revealed by God to man. Upon the death of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, then Vice President, by force of the Constitution, became President of the United States, upon taking the prescribed oath that he would faithfully execute the office of President, and preserve, protect, and defend The the Constitution of the United States. faithfully executed. It is with the people an intuitive judgment, the highest conviction of the human intellect, that the oath faithfully to execute the office of President, and to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, means, and must forever meanwhile the Constitution remains as it is-that the President will himself obey, and compel others to obey, the laws enacted by the legislative deMr. PRESIDENT and SENATORS: I protest,partment ofthe Government, until the same shall Senators, that in no mere partisan spirit, in no spirit of resentment or prejudice do I come to the argument of this grave issue. A RepA Representative of the people, upon the responsi bility and under the obligation of my oath, by order of the people's Representatives, in the name of the people, and for the supremacy of their Constitution and laws, I this day speak. I pray, you, Senators, "hear me for my cause." But yesterday the supremacy of the Constitution and laws was chalenged by armed rebellion; to-day the supremacy of the Constitution and laws is challenged by executive usurpation, and is attempted to be defended in the presence of the Senate of the United States by the retained advocates of the accused. For four years millions of men disputed by arms the supremacy of American law on American soil. Happily for our common country, happily for our common humanity, on the 9th have been repealed or reversed. This, we may assume, for the purpose of this argument, to be the general judgment of the people of this country. Surely it is the pride of every intelligent American that none are above and none beneath the laws; that the President is as much the subject of law as the humblest peasant on the remotest frontier of our ever advancing civilization. Law is the only sovereign, save God, recognized by the American people; it is a rule of civil action not only to the individual. but to the million; it binds alike each and all. the official and the unofficial, the citizen and the great people themselves. This, Senators-and I am almost fearful that I may offend in saying it-is of the traditions of the Republic, and is understood from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores by the five and thirty millions of people who dwell between these oceans and hold in their hands to-day the greatest trust ever committed in the providence || tion, that "he shall take care that the laws be of God to a political society. I feel myself justified, entirely justified, in saying that it rests not simply upon the traditions of the people, but is embodied in their written record from the day when they fired the first gun on the field of Lexington to this hour. Is it not declared in that immortal Declaration which will live as long as our language lives, as one of the causes of revolt against the king of Great Britain, whose character was marked by every act which may define a tyrant, that he had forbidden his governors to pass laws, unless suspended in their operation until they should, have received his assent-I use the words of the Declaration, which, like the words of Luther, were half battles-the law should be suspended until his assent should be obtained. That was the first utterance against the claim of executive power to suspend the laws by those immortal men with whom God walked through the night and storm and darkness of the Revolution, and whom he taught to lay here at the going down of the sun the foundations of those institutions of civil and religious liberty which have since become the hope of the world. I follow the written record further, still asking pardon of the Senate, praying them to remember that I speak this day not simply in the presence of Senators, but in the presence of an expecting and waiting people, who have commissioned you to discharge this high trust, and have committed to your hands, Senators, the issues of life and death to the Republic. I refer next to the words of Washington, first of Americans and foremost of men, who declared that the Constitution which at any time exists until changed by the act of the whole people is sacredly obligatory upon all. I refer next to a still higher authority, which is the expression of the collective power and will, of the whole people of the United States, in which it is asserted that "This Constitution, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made by the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution and laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." That is the solemn declaration of the Constitution; and pending this trial, without a parallel in the history of the nation, it should be written upon these walls. How are these propositions, so plain and simple that "the wayfaring man could not err therein," met by the retained counsel who appear to defend this treason of the President, this betrayal of the great trusts of the people? The proposition is met by stating to the Senate, with an audacity that has scarcely a parallel in the history of judicial proceedings, that every official may challenge at pleasure the supreme law of the land, and especially that the President of the United States, charged by his oath, charged by the express letter of the Constitu faithfully executed," is nevertheless invested with the power to interpret the Constitution for himself, and to determine judicially-Senators, I use the word used by the learned gentleman who opened the case for the accused —to determine judicially whether the laws declared by the Constitution to be supreme are after all not null and void, because they do not happen to accord with his judgment. That is the defense which is presented here before the Senate of the United States, and upon which they are asked to deliberate, that the Executive is clothed with power judicially -I repeat their own word, and I desire that it may be burned into the brain of Senators when they come to deliberate upon this question—that the President may judicially construe the Constitution for himself, and judicially determine finally for himself whether the laws, which by your Constitution are deand void and of no effect, and not to be execlared to be supreme, are not, after all, null cuted, because it suits the pleasure of his highness, Andrew Johnson, first king of the people of the United States, in imitation of George remember, when he comes with such a defense III, to suspend their execution. He ought to as that before the Senate of the United States, that it was said by one of those mighty spirits who put the Revolution in motion and who contributed to the organization of this great and powerful people, that Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles I had his Cromwell, and George II should profit by their example. Nevertheless -and this is the central point of this entire discussion-the position is assumed here in the presence of the Senate, in the presence of the people of the United States, and in the presence of the civilized world, that the President of the United States is invested with the judicial power to determine the force and effect of the Constitution, of his own obligations under it, and the force and effect of every law passed by the Congress of the United States. It must be conceded, if every official may challenge the laws as unconstitutional, and especially if the President may, at his pleasure, declare any act of Congress unconstitutional, reject, disregard, and violate its provisions, and this, too, by the authority of the Constitution, that instrument is itself a Constitution of anarchy, not of order, a Constitution authorizing a violation of law, not enjoining obedience to law. Senators, establish any such rule as this for official conduct, and you will have proved yourselves the architects of your country's ruin; you will have converted this land of law and order, of light and knowledge, into a land of darkness, the very light whereof will be darkness—a land "Where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of nature, will hold Of endless wars, and by confusion stand." Disguise, gloze over, and, by specious and ingenious argument, excuse the President's acts, as gentlemen may, the fact is that we are passing upon the question whether the President may not, at his pleasure, and without peril to his official position, set aside and annul both the Constitution and laws of the United States, and in his great office inaugurate anarchy in the land. The whole defense of the President rests upon the simple but startling proposition that he cannot be held to answer for any violation of the written Constitution and laws of the United States, because of his asserted right under the Constitution, and by the Constitution, to interpret for himself and execute or disregard, at his election, any provision either of the Constitution or statutes of the United States. No matter what demagogues may say of it outside of this Chamber, no matter what re tained counsel may say of it inside of this Chamber, that is the issue; and the recording angel of history has already struck it into the adamant of the past, there to remain forever; and upon that issue, Senators, you and the House of Representatives will stand or fall before the tribunal of the future. That is the issue. It is all there is of it. It is what is embraced in the articles of impeachment. It is all that is embraced in them. In spite of the technicalities, in spite of the lawyer's tricks, in spite of the futile pleas that have been interposed here in the President's defense, that is the issue. It is the head and front of Andrew Johnson's offending, that he has assumed to himself the executive prerogative of interpreting the Constitution and deciding upon the validity of the laws at his pleasure, and suspending them and dispensing with their execution. I say it again, Senators, with every respect for the gentlemen who sit here as the representatives of States and the representatives as well of that great people who are one people though organized by States, that the man who has heard this prolonged discussion, running through days and weeks, who does not understand this to be the plain, simple proposition made in the hearing of Senators, insisted upon as the President's defense, is one of those unfortunates whom even a thrush might pity, to whom God in his providence has denied the usual measure of that intellectual faculty which we call reason. In the trial of this case the Senate of the United States is the sole and only tribunal which can judicially determine this question. The power to decide it is with the Senate; the responsibility to decide it aright is upon the Senate. That responsibility can be divided by the Senate with no human being outside of this Chamber. It is all-important to the people of the United States at large as it is all-important to their Representatives in Congress assembled, and surely it is all-important to the Senators; sworn to do justice in the premises + between the people and the President, that this great issue which touches the nation's life shall be decided in accordance with the spirit as well as with the letter of the Constitution. It is all-important that it shall be decided in accordance with that justice to establish which the Constitution itself was ordained; that justice before the majesty of which we this day bow as before the majesty of that God whose attribute it is; that justice which dwelt with Him before worlds were, which will abide with Him when worlds perish, and by which we shall be judged for this day's proceeding. The Senate, having the sole power to try impeachments, must of necessity be vested by every intendment of the Constitution with the sole and exclusive power to decide every question of law and of fact involved in the issue. And yet, Senators, although that would seem to be a self-evident proposition, hours have been spent here to persuade the Senate of the United States that the Senate at last had not the sole power to try every issue of law and fact arising upon this question between the people and the President. The ex-Attorney General well said the other day, for he quoted a familiar canon of interpretation, "Effect must be given to every word in a written statute." ute." Let effect be given to every word in the written statute of the people-their fundamental law, the Constitution of the United States-and there is an end of all controversy about the exclusive power of the Senate to decide every question of law and fact arising upon this issue. What meant this long-continued discussion on the part of the counsel for the President, resting upon a remark of my colleague [Mr. Manager BUTLER] in his opening on behalf of the people that this was not a court? Was it an attempt to divert the Senate from the express provision of the Constitution that the Senate should be the sole and final arbiters between the people and the President? What meant this empty criticism about the words of my colleague that this was not a court, but the Senate of the United States? My colleague, Mr. Chief Justice, simply followed the plain words of the Constitution, that the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments." I propose neither to exhaust my strength nor the patience of the Senate by dwelling upon this miserable device to raise an issue between the Senate and the courts, because that is what it resulted in at last although it came after a good deal of deliberation, after a good many days of incubation, after many utterances on many subjects concerning things both in the heavens above and in the earth beneath and in the waters under the earth! I do not propose to imitate the example of the learned and accomplished counsel of the President on the trial of this grave issue which carries with it so many and so great results to all the people of the United States not only of this day, but of the great hereafter. I trust I shall be saved in the providence of God, by His grace, from becoming, as have some of the counsel for the President in this august presence, a mere eater-up of syllables, a mere snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. I propose to deal in this discussion with principles, not with "trifles light as air." I care not if the gentlemen choose to call the Senate sitting in the trial of an impeachment a court. The Constitution calls it the Senate. I know, as every intelligent man knows, that the Senate of the United States, sitting upon the trial of impeachment, is the highest judicial tribunal of the land. That is conceding enough to put an end to all that was said on that point-some of it most solemnly by the stately argument of the learned gentle: man from Massachusetts, [Mr. Curtis;] some of it most tenderly by the effective and adroit argument of my learned and accomplished friend from Ohio, [Mr. Groesbeck,] and some of most wittily-so wittily that he held his own sides lest he should explode with laughter at his own wit-by the learned gentleman from New York, [Mr. Evarts,] who displayed more of Latin than of law in his argument, and more of rhetoric than of logic, and more of intellect-pations have been of such a nature from the ual pyrotechnics than of either. [Laughter.] York? The most significant lesson to be gathered from which is this: that the right way and the effectual way by which a man may make his speech immortal is to make it eternal, [Laughter.] What becomes of his long drawnout sentence here about the right of this accused and guilty man, who stands this day clothed with perjury as with a garment in the presence of the people, to be heard first in the Supreme Court of the United States before the Senate shall proceed to trial and judgment? The Senate is vested with the sole and exclusive power to try this question, and the Supreme Court of the United States has no more power to intervene either before or after judgment in the premises than has the Court of St. Petersburg; and so the people of the United States, I hesitate not to say, will hold. But, Senators, I am not to be diverted by these fireworks, by these Roman candles, by these fiery flying serpents that are let off at pleasure, and to order, by the accomplished gentleman from New York, from the point made here between the people and the President by his advocates. I stand upon the plain, clear letter of the Constitution, which declares that "the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments;" that it necessarily invests the Senate with the sole and exclusive power to determine finally and forever every issue of law and fact arising in the case. This is one of those self evident propositions arising under the Constitution of the United States of which Hamilton spoke in words clear and strong, which must carry conviction to the mind of every man, and which I beg leave to read in the hearing of the Senate. Said Hamilton, a man who was gifted by Providence with one of those commanding intellects, whose thoughts indelibly impressed themselves wherever they fell: "This is one of those truths which, to a correct and unprejudiced mind, carries its own evidence along with it, and may be obscured but cannot be made plainer by argument or reasoning. It rests upon axioms as simple as they are universal-the means ought to be proportioned to the end; the persons from whose agency the attainment of any end is expected ought to possess the means by which it is to be attained."-Federalist, No. 23. The end required by the letter of your Constitution of the Senate of the United States is that the Senate decide finally and for themselves every issue of law and fact arising between the people and their accused President. What comes then, I want to know, Senators, of the argument of the learned gentleman from New Nevertheless, clear and manifest as this proposition is, it has been insisted upon here from the opening of this defense to its close by all the counsel who have participated in the discussion, that the Supreme Court is the final arbiter for the decision of all questions arising under the Constitution. I do not state the proposition too broadly, Senators. My occu commencement of this trial to this hour that I have relied more upon my memory of what counsel said than upon any reading which I have given to their voluminous arguments in defense of the accused; but I venture to say that the proposition is not more broadly stated by me than it has been stated by them. I submit to the Senate that the proposition for the defense is not warranted by the Constitution; that there are many questions arising under the Constitution of the United States which by no possibility can be considered as original questions either in the Supreme Court or in any other court of the United States. For example, my learned and accomplished friend who honors me with his attention, and represents the great and growing Commonwealth of Illinois upon this floor, [Mr. TRUMBULL,] is here and is to remain here, not by force of any decision which the Supreme Court of the United States has made, or by force of any decision which the Supreme Court of the It is not United States may hereafter make. a question within their jurisdiction. Illinois is one of those great Commonwealths which, since the organization of the Cnnstitution and within the memory of living men, have sprung up from the shores of the beautiful Ohio away to the golden sands of California, girdling the continent across with a cordon of free Commonwealths under the direct operation of the Constitution of the United States. The people by that Constitution did provide that the Congress shall have power to admit new States into the Union, and when the Congress passed upon the question whether the people of Illinois had organized a government republican in form and were entitled to assume their place in the sisterhood of free Commonwealths the decis |
