The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1867-02-15
From the National Intelhgencer, Feb. 7.
Mr.. Madison on Impeachment.

The fair fame of Its honored dead is part
| of a nations inheritance. That fame should
| be guarded with honest soicitude and scru-
| pulous fidelity. 1t is not permitted to a mod
| ern people to convert its founders and he
roes into demi-gods, and in storied phrase and
| classic song to attribute to them miraculous
achievements and divine power. But it is
their duty to do honor to their memories, and
while neither concealing their foibles nor de-
nying their faults, to pay homage to their
virtues, to eulogize their sagacity, and com
memorate their powers to recall their noble
words, and be enkindled by their manly
deeds. 1t concerns the national honor that
they should be preserved from palpable mis-
representation, from the insinuated falsehood
or the open SANDER.
No greater injustice was ever done the
| well-known and oft-expressed opinions Of a
public man than that which seeks to fasten
upon James Madison the anarchial dogma
/ that the national legislature can suspend at
| their mere will the executive of this nation
| in the discharge of his high functions. Yet
| this attempt is made on one solitary passage
| of speech attributed to Madison in Eliot s
| Debates of the Convention of Virginia which
ratified the constitution of the United States.
If true, it would convict the great Virginian
of the most palpable and disgraceful incon-
| III IL ID Sctti du1StCO ~ Lis
record as made up BY himself in the debates
of the constitutional convention, and by re-
peated passages in his correspondence.
The following is the passage relied upon
to damage the reputation of one whom it
suits those who thus misrepresent him to
| style "the father of the constitution
| There is one security in this case to which gen
| tlemen may not have adverted. IF the President
| be connected in any suspicious manner with any
| person, and if there be any ground to believe nc
will shelter MIN, the house of representatives can
| impeach him they remove him if found
| guilty; they can suspend him when suspected
| and the power will devolve on the Vice President
| Should he be suspected also, he may likewise be
| suspended until ne be impeached and removed
and the legislature may make temporary APP
pointment. This is great security.
In the debate which took place in the Vir
ginia convention on the pardoning power
with which the President is invested, Colone
| George Mason, who had been the stauncI
| opponent of the constitution in the conven
ton at Philadelphia, and was strenuousl,
contesting its ratification by Virginia, con
tended that the President sought not to have
the power of pardoning, because he may FIRE
4 quently pardon crimes which were advised
by himself" And Mr. Madison is represen
ted as using the language we have quoted
| DuI thio "HOlS NueSbtOH Vi iIlpesicnInGHL nat
been thoroughly and repeatedly canvassed il
the convention which framed the constitu
ton, and in the minutes of that convention
made each day by Mr.. Madison, occurs the
following, on the l4th of September. 1887
| MIR. Rutledge and Mr.. Gouverneur Morris
moved that persons impeached be suspended from
their office until they be tried and acquitted.
| MIR. Madison. The President is made too de.
pendent already upon the power of the Legislature
| by the power of one branch to try him in conse-
quence of an impeachment by the other This
intermediate suspension will put him in the power
of one branch only. They can at any moment in
order to make way for further functions of another
VINO VIII be more favorable to their views vote a
temporary removal of the existing magistrate.
Mr.. King CONQUERED in the opposition to the
amendment.
On the question to agree to it:
Connecticut, South Carolina. Georgia-Ayes 3
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey,
| Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia.
North Carolina-Noes s. (Madison's Minutes !:
Eliot, VOL ., pages Sal, 542.)
Here, then, Mr.. Madison is declared IN
MS own hand writing, as speaking against
and helping to vote down proposition
winch ne is represented, in the Virginia de-
| bates, as averring belongs to the constitution,
and affording great security.
This, we submit, is of itself conclusive
Ii is Mr.. Madlsons own record. The debates
furnished by Mr.. Elliot Of the state conven-
lions were made up from the contemporary
accounts. 1t is not pretended that they are
verbatim, They are summaries, more or
less full, of what was said. But every one
| who has marked what speakers in delibera-
tive bodies really say, and what they are re-
ported as saying, knows how often, yet inno-
Gently, they are represented as saying just