The Portland daily press., 1866-11-06
General Buffers Indictment Of the
President.


General Buffers indictment of the
President.
Gen. Butler did not deliver his speech in IA
vor of the impeachment of the President in
| New York on Friday evening, as advertised,
being prevented from speaking by temporary
/ illness. A correspondent of the Boston Ad-
vertiser, who has heard the General speak on
this subject at Cleveland, Cincinnati and Chi
cago, and has also heard him discuss the cues
ton with many lawyers and politicians at the
West, furnishes the following summary of his
views, prepared from notes which had been
submitted to Gen. Butler for correction and
may therefore be regarded as perfectly anthem
| tic. In default of the promised speech we pub
ish this synopsis of its argument, which de-
serves attention as by far the strongest pre-
sentation of the case hitherto:
The right of impeachment was carefully
woven into the fabric of the Constitution by its
makers. 1t was put there as a safeguard of
/ popular rights. 1t is, therefore, not revolu
| tionary but constitutional power, and not
| those who exercise it but those who oppose it
are "revolutionists." Members of Congress
are sworn to uphold the Constitution and if
they believe that the President has violated it
they are bound by their Office to impeach him.
They have no choice The President has viO-
lated the Constitution. ~
First.-He has endeavored by his public
speeches to bring Congress, coordinate
branch of the government, into public hatred,
rldicule and contempt, by characterizing it as
an illegal and unconstitutional assembly, with
out Ipower or right, pretending to be Con-
gress, body hanging upon the verge of the
| government" trump OF Congress-" body
OF disunionists, domineering, tyrannical and
unconstitutional Congress, its legally appoint
ed committee as central directory, and some
| OF its most distinguished, loyal and patriotic
members as traitors and disuniOnists, who are
deserving of death at the gibbet.
Second.-He has sought by the most infiam-
| matory harangues and declamations against
the power of Congress, to excite the people to
disobey the laws passed by it, and to resist their
execution.
Third He has used the power of pardoning
offences against the United States, vested by
the Constitution in the Executive, for corrupt
and wicked purposes, and in an indiscriminate,
illegal and unconstitutional manner He has
thus released from the just penalties of their
acts, many notorious criminals, guilty OF trea-
| son, murder, robbery, theft, and counter
letting the currency of the United States,
and this both before and after trial, without q
due Investigation of their offences and in order
| 10 prevent lines, forfeitures and confiscations
legally and properly due to the United States
from coming into the national treasury
Fourth.--He has usurped the legislative
power OF Congress, by restoring to rebels and
traitors to the government large amounts of
money equal IN value to many millions of dol.
lars, which by capture of war and otherwise
had become vested in the United States, and
ought to have gone into its treasury This is
| IN direct derogation of the constitutional pow
ef OF Congress ITO make rules concerning cap
lures on land or water
fIth.-He has appointed without warrant
OF law and against constitutional right certain
persons as provisional governors over portions
OF the territory Of the United States, disorgan-
| ized by civil war and rebellion, in which, as he
himself admitted, "all civil government was
overtnrown," and has ordered and permitted
the salaries and emoluments ofthese illegal APP
polntees to be paid from the Treasury Of the
United States. =
Sixth-He has appointed and caused to be
indIcted into office many rebels, both pardon-
ed and unpardoned, wio as he knew at the
tlne Were unable to take the oath prescribed
Dy law that they had not been guilty of treason
without warrant of law he has caused their
salaries to be paid from the treasury of the
Seventh.-He has usurped the legislative
powers constitutionally devOlved on Congress.
IN prescribing, by executive order, the terms
anu condltions upon which former citizens
VINO, by levying war and other crimes against
the national authority, had forfeited all their
rights and lost all power, both as individuals
ana as organized communities, to participate
IN the government of the United States, and
70 De represented in Congress, might again be
organized into States of the Union to frame
constitutions and do ether legislative acts and.
nnally, become clothed with the power and
rights OF citizens entitled to representation in
tives.
Eighth.-He has usurped the power of Com
gress In his proclamation OF peace A public
territorial War was declared to exist by Con-
gress and the President between the United
STATES ana the armed forces of the insurrec-
tl0n9FV SfQfna Hha &s4,,As !.
Senate the right to advise and consent to any
treaty OF peace, and in the House of Repre-
sentatives the power to provide for the general
welfare By his sole proclamation, in defiance
oI tnese PROVISIONS the President declared the
war to be ended and peace to be restored in
order to relieve these insurgents from the dlsa-
blLtles and obligations consequent upon state
of war. -F75 r. "''N
Ninth. While declaring the legal and con-
stitutlonal existence and right of the State Of
Louisiana, he interfered in its domestic con-
Germs, and ordered the Federal army to pro-
tect IL from instruction, without the appilca-
tlon OF the executive and legislature.
Ienth.-Conspiring with certain evil dispos-
ed persons, lately rebels, the chief of whom
John Il. Munroe, he pardoned in order to en-
able him to hold Office, the President aided and
abetted them in the murder of loyal and well
disposed citizens of New Orleans; and to hide
from the people his completely in this great
crime he garbled and caused to be published
the dispatches of the general Commanding
there, and afterwards wickedly charged the VI
olencs and massacre he had melted on the Com
gress of the United States.
Eleventh.-He has corruptly and wickedlv
abused the power of appointment and remoy-
al from office, for the purpose of Interfering
with the freedom of election, by making the
sole qualification for obtaining and retaining
place the opposition of the candidate or incr,n
bent to the constitutional laws acts and now
ers OF Congress-
Twelfth-He has usurped from the Senate
the constitutional right of advising and. con- |
s set 70 tne appointments Of officers of the
tuition; by nominating to that body MANY per-
sons whom, after the Senate had refused to adj
wise and consent to their appointment he has
put IN once and clothed with its powers and |
duties; and he has cansed their salaries to be |
paid without right and without law, and fur
thermore shown his contempt and wicked in |
tentlon and design by appointing and induct-
ing into Office many such men who had been re- |
Jected by the Senate more than once
Thirteenth.-He has violated his oath of of |
nee ito take care that the laws shall be faith
fully executed" by neglecting and refusing to |
enforce such laws, although duly and legally |
enacted by Congress, as were distasteful to him |
by being pissed over his veto or in Opposition |
to his wishes Eta f7--~l- |
In addition to these distinct easily substan- |
tiated and clearly official crimes the personal |
habits OF the President-his drunkenness, for |
example, and alleged immoral traffic in partions
Are when established by proper evidence. i'm
peachable offences. Precedents are found to
support the argument that for drunkenness
alone the President could be constitutiunalIy |
Again, His use of the army during |
the Fenian excitement was an unconstitutional |
use OF power Their offence under the law was |
a misdemeanor only. They should have been |
looked after by civil officers only; if these Off
GERS had been resisted, then it was the duty of /
the President to call out the army, but not till /
then. The case of the privateer which the |
broad arrow of England arrested at the docks /
of Liverpool, and the Alabama which was al /
lowed to escape, were entrusted, and properly /
so, to civil officers only. Neither army nor ma
w could properly be used until resistance was /
offered to civil authority. In the case of the /
kenians, there was neither disposition nor in
tentlon to resist the United States officers of |
any class. Their utmost anxiety was to get as /