Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-12-06

eighty-five persons of Aashtabula, asking
the House of Representatives to impeseh
the President.
Mr.. Window having permission to make
a personal explanation, caused to be read
the report of the remarks of Mr. Brooks on
yesterday, rejecting upon him, and denied
he had said anything to provoke such re-
marks.
The Speaker presented letter from the
Postmaster General in relation to appro-
priations for the service of the Postoffice
Department, Referred TO the Committee
on Appropriations.
The question of concurring With the
Senate in reviving the Joint Committee on
Ordnance, came up. Mr.. Ross remarked
that the country did not want an ordnance
committee. He thought a committee on
pruning hooks Would be better.
Mr.. Logan spoke in favor of the resolu-
ton, and said the evidence already taken
showed great frauds had been committed
on the government in contracts for heavy
ordnance and munitions of war; and that
officials of the government had been par
ties of the frauds. He declared that in the
late war more United States soldiers had
been killed by their own artillery than by
the artillery of the enemy, and said that he
was in favor of consolidating the ordnance
departments ofthe army and navy. The
resolution was concurred in-Yeas 1928,
nays 26.
Mr.. Doves, Chairman of the Committee
on Elections, called up areport of the case
of the third Congressional district of Ken
lucky, closing with resolution that Geo.
d. Blakeley be not entitled to seat, and
that the oath should now be administered
to j. j. Golliday. Mr. Doves justified the
report of the committee.
Mr.. Blakeley was permitted to address
the House in advocacy of his claims.
After considerable debate, the resolutions
reported by the Committee on Elections
were adopted and Mr.. GolIaday admitted
to his seat.
The impeachment question was then, at
3 o'clock, taken up, and Mr.. Boutwell, pro-
ceeded to discuss the four clauses in the
constitution relating to Impeachment, de
claring they were not intended merely to
punish criminals, but to remove from
office persons unfit for office or trust, or
persons charged with an act stained with
criminality. The object of impeachment,
he said, is not TO punish, but to secure
the country against the presence
of the offender in any place of trust
or power in future; if the Judgment of
the Senate was a punishment, then the
seventh paragraph, section third, article
first of the constitution, which provides
that the person convicted shall neverthe-
less be subject to Indictment, trial, iudg-
ment and punishment according to law,
would be wholly inconsistent with the ma
ture of our constitution. This phrase of
the constitution has been drawn aside, or
rather torn from its legitimate connection,
for the purpose of furnishing proof of the
doctrine that those acts that are indictable,
and those alone, are improbable of1enses.
The true meaning is easily understood;
Its office is to change the common law
practice of England by that law. A per
son convicted by the House of Lords upon
a proceeding by impeachment could plead
that conviction and sentence, in case of an
Indictment, in a criminal court for the
same otfense. The speaker proceeded to
compare very fully the method of pro-
ceeding for impeachment under our laws
with those of Great Britain, claiming that
under the provisions of the constitution
offences are Improbable which are not in,
dictable. Treason, he said, is one of the
Improbable offenses which is defined by
the constitution, and Congress has no power
to enlarge, limit or in any degree to quail
ify the jurisdiction of the Senate when SET
ting for trial of the President; while Con-
gress does not declare what makes high
crimes and misdemeanors, it states thedefi-
milton of treason. To assign one of the
forms it is impossible for Congress to
make certain offenses crimes and INSIDE
meanors everywhere in the United States.
At the present moment no law exists which |
declares it shall be high crime, or even
a misdemeanor, for the President to de- |
cline to recognize Congress and yet should |
be decline to recognize its lawful and con- |
stitutioDal existence and authority, and |
thus virtually dissolve the government,
would Congress be impotent and unable to
proceed by process of impeachment to
secure his removal from office?
After further remarks, MIR. Boutwell,
said rest firmly of the opinion that the
phrase bribery and other light crimes and
misdemeanors, is used in the constitution
in accordance with the subject to the priu-
cipal or rule of reason which lies at the
foundation of the English common law of
crimes. This rule is that no person can
lawfully do an act contrary to good morals.
The speaker quoted largely from great
jurists, English and American, as to the
law bearing upon cases similar to the one
under discussion, and the whole argument
was SO grave that the law was sustained
by the position assumed by q majority of
the committee, and rendered their case a
clear one.
Mr.. Boutwell, proceeded to consider the
facts in the case, Analysing the charges
against the President, his acts, his Cabinet
advisers, his speeches and messages, his in
reference to prevent the adoption of con-
Ititutional amendments, his surrender of
abandoned lands and bis removal of Stan
on, Sheridan and Sickles, and closed as
ollows: Believing that Andrew johnson
8 guilty of high crimesa and misdemeanors,
have assented to, and by direction of a
majority of the Judiciary Committee, re-
ported resolution for his impeachment,
n con temptation Of the law, and upon the
acts | believe him guilty, and thereon j
lsk the judgment of the House.
Mr.. Boutwell, yielded to the motion to
diourn, with the understanding that lie
hould have the floor to morrow, after the
eading Of the Journal