The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-10-16
The Impeachment.

admirable article on Buffers threatened
impeachment of the President
This ingenious fallacy rests upon an as
sumption which a little scrutiny will easily
explode. The assumption is. that an officer
under impeachment stands in the same re-
lation to the tribunal appointed to try him
that an ordinary criminal does to an orCi-
nary court. Because a court of Justice
never tries Il criminal unless it has custody
Of his person, it is inferred that the same
rule holds in the trial of an impcached
officer by the Senate. The analogy fails in
consequence of q total difference in the
liability of the persons accused. The Con-
stitution declares that Judgment in cases
OF impeachment shall not extend further
than removal from Office" and disquaiiiica-
ton to hold any future Office. 1t is not
necessary for the Senate to have the GUS
tody of the accused i'll order to inhict this
punishment. But an ordinary criminal, on
trial for theft murder or other crime, is
liable to be punished by infections on his
person. 1t would be an idle folly to 20
through the form of passing Il sentence of
death or Imprisonment if the culprit was
beyond the reach of the officers of the law
A person impeached of o crime otherwise
punishable than by deposition from office,
is also liable to the ordinary penalties OF
the same crime by the Judgment of the
ordinary tribunals. The impeachment,
having no other aim than to simply vacatc
his Office, can accomplish its purpose Just
as well without the custody Of his person
aS with. He is summoned to appear on
the same principle that the defendant in 4
civil suit is summoned to appear. If he
stays away, he only valves his opportunity
of defence. An officer summoned to appear
and answer to an Impeachment has these
three alternatives, with perfect freedom Of
selection, namely: he may appear in per-
son; he may appear only by counsel; or he
NAV decline to aCDe3r at all In thp a. a
of Justice Samuel Chase, of the United
States Supreme Court, impeached in 1905,
the Senate, after organizing as a high court
of impeachment, adopted the following as
one of its rules of proceeding:
10. The person lmpeached shall then
be called to appear and answer the articles
of Impeachment exhibited against him. If
he appears, or any person for him, the
appearance shall be recorded, stating par
ticularly if by himself or if by agent or
attorney: naming the person appearing,
and The capacity i'll which he appears. ii
agent or attorney, the same shall be re-
corded
1t is clear, from this weighty and au-
thoritativc precedent, that Gen. Butler is
wholly wrong i'll his law. Instead of the
President being taken into custody and
choice whether he will appear before the
court at all. III he appears, he is just as
free to appear by attorney as in person.
Judge Story, in his commentaries on the
Constitution, describes at length the for
malities observed in trials for impcach-
ment;; We cite the following passage as
corroborating the infcrcnces we have drawn
from the rule of the court in Judge Chasc's
case: eff he Lthc person impeached]
docs not appear, IN person or by attor-
ney, his default is recorded, and the Sc
nate may proceed er pa'fe to tho trial of
the Impeachment. If he does appear in
person or by attorney, his appearance is
recorded"
There have been, in all, four cases of
mpeachmcnt.sin the beginning of our
Govcrnment-nam that of VIM. Blount,
1893; john Pickering, 1908; Samuel Chase,
1905, and James II. Peck, 1881. The law
governing such trials, as stated by Judge
Story, is founded ON the precedcnts fur
nshcd by these four cases. The argument
OF Gen. Butler, in support of the position
OF Wendell Phillips. that the President
must necessarily be suspended from Office
during the trial, fails to the ground in the
face face of this uniform usage. But, even if
the exploded assumption OF But!er were
correct, the taking of the President into
temporary custody would not operate as
suspension from office. If he should be
totally disabled for six weeks by tvphus
fever, we suppose nobodyis absurd enough
to say that he would cease to be President
of the Senate would be inducted into the
executive chair. The Government would,
in that case, be administered by the heads
OF departments, and papers requiring the
Presidents name would remain unsigned
until his recovery.
That his Office could not be filled by an
other person during his transient disa bill
", may be shown by conclusive analogy.
Suppose Chief Justice Chase should be i'm
peached, would his Office be vacant during
his trial? If so, the President could send
to the Senate nomination to fill the va
cancy. The idea OF his doing 80 is utterly
The Office can only be va
Gated after conviction, and in conse
Quence of Il sentence. TO make the office
vacant is the only penalty which the Con-
stltutiop allows against an officer impcach-
ed; and it is absurd to suppose that pun
ishment can date from the accusation
instead Of from tie judgment.
II we were to hazard conjecture as to
the course of the President. in case he
should be impeached, 1t would be that he
would object to the competency of the
court, and refuse to appear. If, when the
la W gives man the benefit of twelve Jury
men, an iniquitous court should attempt
to try him before seven, he would refuse
to plead. The Constitution gives an i'm
peached officer the right to be tried by
seyenty-two Senators, and requires two
thirds of the number to convict If the
hfty-two, he has right to deny the jurs
diction Of n court OF impeachment so COM
posed.
LAwLEss CoNDUcr. A friend in
forms us that q party of young men
in Aiken ran off u Yankee negro
school too cher. pipbt bafora loct rTbo