The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-08
The Impeachment Scheme--The COnstl-
tuition and MadisOn's Opinion.

The Impeachment Scheme--The COnstI-
tuition and MadisOn's Opinion.
FToH' the Times
As have maintained from the beginning,
1he susp. "siOn of the President from Office is an
essential feature of the project of impeachment.
The men most active in that project avow with
out hesitation that, unless the President can
thus be suspended, his impeachment and trial
are of no importance What they want is to get
him out of office, not to punish him for crime.
Wendell Phillips stated the other day in Boston
that the President must be impeached-not be.
cause they desired to punish him, but because
they "wanted his place." General Butler has
sad in substance the same thing; and as we
have already shown, the leading actors of the
impeachment scheme in Congress seek the same
ends and are prompted by the same motives.
The whole impeachment scheme is simply
political movement-nothing more and nothing
less. 1t is urged not in the interest of justice
or of the national safety, but in the interest of
political faction, and for the purpose of clear
ing the way for the accomplishment of certain
political objects. The President is an obstacle
IN the way of tavorite modes of reconstruction.
While he is in office the Southern States cannot
be reduced to territories, nor treated simply as
conquered provnces-nor can the Supreme
Court be swept away or made subserVient to the
will of shifting political majority. A two
thirds vote cannot be relied on for the accom-
plishment of these ends-even in the present or
the next Congress. For these reasons, the Pre-
Sident must be impeached and suspended, The
Nobstacle" must be removed" And unless
suspension can take place at once, without wait
ing for trial and conviction, the impeachment
will be useless.
But the language of the Constitution seems
very explicit on this point. 1t declares that
officers impeached shall be removed from Office
ION trial and conviction" both being clearly
required as necessary to removal, The political
advocates of impeachment insist, however, that
though he may not be removed until the trial
results in conviction, he may be suspended
while the trial is going on, and that this will
answer all their purposes. Precedents have
been quoted from English history to sustain this
position, and General Butler, in his Brooklyn
speech, urged that if this had been the intent of
Inc CONSTITUTION, IN clear obedience to English
precedents that document would have contained
an explicit provision to that effect. Bat what is
most confidently relied on to support this
Lheory Is declaration said to have been made
Dy Madison, in the Virginia State Convention
neld TO consider the question of ratifyng the
Federal Constitution. The pardoning power,
vested in the President, being under discussion
Colonel Mason spoke in opposition to 1t and was
answered by Madison, who, after urging that it
could not be vested elsewhere without encoun-
9erlng stll greater objections, is reported to
have said:-
There is one security in this case to which
gentlemen may not have adverted: if the
President be connected, in any suspicious man
ner, with any person, and there be grounds to
believe he will shelter him, the House of Repre.
sentatives may impeach him; they can 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 till he be
impeached and removed, and the Legis
lature may make temporary appointment
This is great security"
This passage was cited a few days since b!
the Washington Chronicle, the special organ o
the impeachment party, and was made th
basis OF an impassioned appeal for immediat
action; and the great authority OF Mr.. Madison
npon every point of constitutional construt
lion certainly gave TO the movement de9re
of importance 1t had never before enjoyed
Mr.. George T. Curtis, however known as a
able lawyer and publicist, has shown in r.
cent letter to the World that it is scarcel
credible that Mr.. Madison ever should hav
expressed such an opinion. II is found in tn
debates of the State Conventions, made up b.
Elliott from newspaper reports which wer
never subjected to revision, and were who'll
without authority; while this declaration s
explicitly contradicts the opinions uniforml
expressed by Madison on this very point as
render II 10 the highest degree improbabl
that ne should ever have made 1t. But even
ne did make it, it was for the purpose of evadin
an objection urged in debate against specI
provision of the Constitution; and an opino
inns uttered is scarcely entitled TO great weigl
as a deliberate construction Of that instrumen
Ant neither Madisons deliberate opinion, n,
the intent and purpose Of the Constitution {