St. Mary's gazette., 1866-11-15

The iurv must consist Of two mem bers
from. each Stat" of tue Union. \ lc-s
number. unless abs,n, .rou neglect on IN
part of tic people of ,ht several States, >
!a..l to he valid Il and LEGALITY oI :he
,ra.eeiiu-s l. would 90; be couteaded
for a moment that. il L inaj jor'tE q tn
Senators from the Northern States were To
say that Mane aud New York and Omo
-lseeld not be represented in the Senate,
then the remsinder Of the Senators coAd
proceed in the matter of the impeachment
Of the President And YET this iS par
allcl case with that IF refusing Senators
from the Southern States, 50 tar as the
constitutional ri.ht Of a sectional Senate
to proceed in All impeachment ease Is con
cerned.
1t will thus be seen thatit is not 50 easy
a matter to impeach the President as the
Radical leaders would make portion OF
the people 10 believe. Tue Chief Nagi.-
trate has rights which the Constitution
guards, as well as the people. The Rail-
Gals, however, in order to destroy those
rights and 10 obtain possession OF the oftare
from the moment when the summons Tor
the President to appear has beeu issued,
assume the position that the law deprlyes
the Chief Magistrate Of a.! the powers ana
functions Of his office pending the trIaI,-
This is false in law. against ali precedent,
and dangerous in high degree to tae safety
and welfare OF the nation. Ii this course
be endorsed, political party may prefer
articles of impeachment against President
at the beginning Of his term; the Senate
may deprive him OF lbc functions OF his
office, and then refuse to proceed With the
trial MI the end of the term for which he
was chosen, thus virtually making the cloc-
ton of President farce and merGlng the
executive into the legislative branch 0, the
nation. But such is not the las or prac
,ice in impeachment cases. An cihcer sum
moned to appear and answer 70 an lnpcacA-
mcnt, may make his selection from three
alternatives. Tie may appear IL person, by
By his counsel, or he may decline to appear
at all and take the consequences rs de
fcudent does IN civil suit. In case OF
Justice Samuel Chase, of the United States
Supreme Court inpeached IN lo02, the
Senate, after organizing as high court OF
impeachment. adopted the following as one
Of its rules Of proceedings:
The person impcachcd shall then be
called to appcsr and answer the articles OF
impeachment exhibited against hla' Ii
be appears, or any person for him, the ap
D araucc shall be recorded stating Ia TIC
u!arly if by himself or if by agent OF at
tornev: naming the person appearing, and
The capacity III which be appears. 1t he
does not appear, either personally or by
agent or attorney. the same shall be rc-
corded.
This rule is founded both upon the law
and the reason Of the case, aud should COY
crn all future impeachment trials before
the Senate of the United S atcs. The
President may appear in person, by coun-
sci. or be may not appear at ali; but IN
no case can he be deprived OF The iu c.
ticna uf his Office until fair trial has been
had before such Senate rs the Consttu-
ton of the United States declares shall try
impeachment eases. There can be no
mock proceedings, no bringing the repre-
sentative OF the people otthc United States
to "blook and the axe IN open violation
of all constitutional rights and legal pre-
cedcnts This may be accepted as
fact.
There are all these obs acles IN the rev
olutlonary path which the Kadi*alS have
marked out. They hope to dcpose the
President and usurp supreme power IN this
country. But it cannot be done by car
rying out the Butler impeachment pro
eramne. The Constitution forblds such
an outrage as that contemplated, and the
President is sworn to uphold and defend
the Constitution by all the means placed
at his disposal If the Radicals wish to
rebel against the law, let them made the
attempt. Punishment vail speedily toll
low any overt acts In the meantime, the
common sense Of the country viii p'Aiar
such facts as those presented ar public
opjnion will ste danger in Overlapping
the barriers of the Constitution III order to
pcrpctuate partisan po"er.-Age'