The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1868-05-07
IMPEACHMENT TRIAL.
Mr.. BINGHAM'S SPEECH.
Special Dispatch 70 the Cievelandt.eadc
WAqUTNqToN NAV 4.

argument Of this grave issue. A rep
rosentative Of the people, on the re.
sponsibility aud under the obligation
Of my path, by order Of the people,
in the name Of the people, and for
the supremacy Of their Constitution
and laws, | this day speak. | pray
you, Senators, hear INC for my cause.
But yesterday the supremacy of the
Constitution and laws was challenged
be armed rebellion; to day the su
premacy Of the Constitution and laws
is challenged by Executive usurpa.
tion, aud Is attempted to be defended
in the presence Of the Senate of the
United States. For four years mil
lions Of men disputed by arms the
the supremacy Of American law on
American soil. Happily for our
common country, happily for our
common humanity, on the och day Of
April, in the year Of our Lord, 1865,
the broken battallions Of treason and
armed resistance to law surrendered
to the victorious legions of tho Re
public. On that day, Senators, not
without sacrifice, not without suffer.
ing, not without martyrdom, tho laws
we're vindieated on that day the word
went out all over our sorrow.stricken
land, and to every nationality, that
the Republic, the last refuge Of con-
stitutional liberty, the last sanctuary
OF an iuyiolablo justice, was saved
forever, saved by the sacrifices and
virtue and yalor Of its children. On
the 1lth day Of April, 1865, here in
the capital, amidst the joy aud glad.
ness of the people for their great do.
liverancc, fell Abraham Lincoln, by
an assassin's hand--a President Of
the United States, slain, not for his
crimes, but for his virtues aud cspe-
cially for his fidelity to duty-that
highest word revealed by God to
man. Upon the death Of Abraham
Lincoln, Andrew johnson, then Vice
Prosident of the United States; by
force of the Constitution became
President on taking the prescribed
oath faithfully to execute the Office
Of President, and to preserve, protect
and defend the Constitution Of the
United States. The great people,
bowing with uncovered heads in the
presence Of that strange, great sor.
row which camc upon them, forgot
for moment the disgraoofdl part
which Andrew johnson had played
upon this tribunal of the Senate on
the 18th day of March, 1865, and ac.
ceptod his oath as successor to
Abraham Lincoln as confirmation and
assurance that he would take care
that the laws bo faithfully executed
II is, Senators, with the people an
intuitive Judgment of tho highest
conviction of the human intellect,
that the oath faithfully to execute
tho Office Of tho President, aud pre-
serve, protect, and defend the Con
stitution Of tho United States, means,
aud must forever mean, while the
Constitution remains as it is, that,
President will himself obey, and com.
pei others by the whole power of the
people to obey, the laws which shall
DO ouacted by the people through
their representatives in Congress,
until the same shall have been duly
repealed by the law.making power, or
shall have been actually reversed by
u,O Supreme Court of tho United
States within tho limitations and re
strictions Of the Constitution itself.
tS5s the purpose Of this argument,
SvGstors, wc may acde%t This rs the
general Judgment of the peop,c to
this country. Surely it is the just
pride of every American that no
man is above the laws, ard no man be
meath thom; that the President of the
United States himself is as much
subject of the law as tho humblest
person on the romotest frontier of
your ever advancing civilization. |
need not say in this presence, sur
rounded by representatives Of the
people, that amongst tho American
people there is no sovereign, save God,
except the laws enacted by themselves,
obligatory alike upon each, and ali
official and all unofficial obligation of
which ceases only with their repeal or
their actual reversal in the mode pre-
scribed by the people themselves.
This, Senators, aud am almost fear
full that | may offend in saying i, is
the tradition of the Republic, and is
understood from tho Atlantic to the
Pacific shores by five aud thirty mil
lions Of people who dwell between
these oceans, aud hold in their hands
to-day the greatest trust ever com
mitted In tho providence Of God to
any political society. | feel myself
justified, entirely justified, in saying
that It rests not only ON the traditions
Of the people, but is embodied in
their record from the day when they
arod The GrSt gun on tho field Of
Lexington, Is it not stated in that
declaration that one Of the
reasons which induced tho result was
the ordercr issued by the King to his
governors to stay tho execution o.
,ao laws,-until they received MS
sanction, they should bo suspended ?
| use the words Of tho Declaration,
which, like tho words Of Luther. were
half tho battle. "They should be
until they did receive his
assent that was tho 6rst voice of
those immortal mon with whom God
walked through tho night aud storm
Of tho darkness Of revolution, and
whom he taugh. TO lay here, at the go
ing down Of tho Sun the foundations of
those Institutions ofeivil aud religious
liberty which have since become the
hope oCtheworld, | follow that written
record further still, asking pardon of
the Soua,e aud praying them to re-
that speak this day no,
simply in tho presence Of Senator's,
but in tho presence OF an expecting
and waiting people who have COM