Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-09-05
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At last, alter long endurance and delay,
the President, by formal official act, re-
moved the Secretary of War, and appoint
ed one of the officers of the department ad
Interim to take charge of the papers and
business of the office until a successor
should be regularly appointed and quail
fled, and he, the next day, nominated sue
cessor to the Senate. For this the House
at once, by a party vote, impeached him.
In their articles they declare as high crimes
and misdemeanors separately, the removal
of Secretary Stanton, the appointment of
an officer to perform the duties OF Secre-
tary dd interins-that is. to take custody of
the Office, the books, and papers, and cor
until successor could be
confirmed and commissioned. They re-
verted to past acts, and impeached him for
having replied with bad temper to their
taunts and insults. They impeached him
for having expressed an opinion unfavor-
able to their power of framing an amend
ment to the Constitution to bind
ten States. which, they would not
suffer to be represented while they
framed it; they impeached him for
doubling the propriety of compelling the
ten States to accept the article so prepared
for them under a penalty or under the
pressure sof military force; and they i'm
peached him for inquiring of a military of
ficerg what had been done with a certain
regiment of troops of the United States
which Congress had, by an act passed over
his veto, taken from under his command
and disposed of without his knowledge
each of these, and Others too frivolous to
name, the House, by party vote, found to
be high crime or a high mfsdemeanOr.-
They solemnly preferred these articles to
the Senate, and devoted months of time,
and spent more than a million of the pub
lie money, in their efforts to produce con-
viction. / beg you to refer to the articles,
if you are not ashamed to read Them The
embodied whole looks like what, in legal
parlance, used to be called a case of malic-
ious prosecution !; and there was nothing in
its progress to change its character, but
much to confirm it, -,tt.o1 -ur
Before the passage of the Tenure oi
Civil Office law no man doubted that the
President had right, to remove the Secre-
tary of War. The amendment to that act,
according to the expressed opinion of many
leading Senators, acquiesced in by the
whole Senate, reserved to him still that
power. No man who reads the act can
doubt it-so clear was the case that though
the House made it their first article of i'm
peachment, the Senate passed it by, and
declined to put it to vote, Stanton, there
fore, was lawfully removed; he was out OF
office: but the President of the Senate told
him to stick" So he entered and held IL
for months in open contempt and defiance
of the President, certainly with no more
right there than any stranger who walked
the street. For this impudent and lawless
act, he received a vote of thanks of the two
Houses of Congress.
Nor was this all; weeks were spent on
the impeachment trial, in an effort to get
proof that the President had attempted to
expel the insolent intruder by force, which,
if proved, would have been convincing to
the ethics of the two houses, high crime
or misdemeanor, tor which the President
should be removed from office. To the
offense of eXpelling by force, tres
passer from an executive Office. would
have been added, in this case, contempt of
the presiding officer of the Senate, who
had bade the intruLer to .'stick." Proof
of an intent to use force, if necessary, to re-
possess himself of the department failed,
and with it the articles Of Impeachment
charging it.
If the President had been in the actual
possession of his constitutional powers, he
ought to have been impeached for suffering
the intruder to remain single day in pos.
session of the department. But he was not
The two houses, hacked and supported by
the General -in-C Chief, had left him utterly
powerless and incapable even of self-pro-
lection. If a robber had entered his man
clODs Oy VI ddJ, lO VIVIAN iOb nave
expelled him, especially if he had been told
20 'stick."2 That the. General was in full
accord with the two houses, and that he
hal learned something of their new sys-
tenn of morals, widely different from what
is taught in military schools, is proved by
his last letter to the President, in which he
tells him that he did not intend to surren.
der to him the department. pursuant to the
conditions on which he received it, lest the
chnu1d On trco u tn dafoot "a
a -tion of the Radicals in Congress. In
truth, he not only surrendered to a mere
traspasser the department, with its papers
iand seals, and all the muniments If Office,
which the President had confided to him.
but he gave the intruder a guard, detailed
for the purpose from the army OF the Uni.
ted States, which was kept up, day and
night, for months, to protect him against a
possible attempt, on the part of the Presi.
dent, to recover possession. a s.nGga5si iaT-d
The seizing and holding possession o
Fort Sumter against the constitutional au,
thority of the United States, was an Overt
act of treason. Is this less so? Look at 1t
Is it less so? The two acts were done un-
der pretense of rights. They were equally
illegal; both committed by military force,
actual or menaced-the fort and the depart
ment each held by an armed band against
the lawful authority of the United States
When the trial of the Impeachment was
at length drawing toward close, it was as
certained that some of the Republican Sen.
ators held their judicial oath binding then
to do impartial justice paramount to the
party mandate to convict, right or wrong
This caused much excitement in the party
it struck leaders with amazement, and mos
strenuous efforts were made, by threats anC
entreaties, to compel or persuade vote Of
conviction. Senators who sat as judges
were assailed by members who had voted
for the Impeachment. and bv constituents
who were waiting to get office under the
new President. All sense OF propriety. al
respect for the obligations of a judicia
oath, were lost in Their eagerness for sue
cess; they had, indeed, rejected both ir
their new system of political morality, ane
held that pledge with the inevitable sane
ton, so help me caucus, was paramount to ar
oath with the hackneyed sanction, " 81
help me God" The latter was "playeo
out;" ian old mile stone on an abandoned
road" General Schenck, chairman OF the
Republican committee, endeavored, by {
circular, and, as time pressed, by telegraph
dispatches, to avert the threatened evil
They were all in the same spirit and all il
the same high tone of political and judicia
morality, in which he seems to have beer
sufficiently taught. The following dispatch
will serve as an example,: vs rA
"a 'WAsHINGToN. D. G.. May II. 1867.
i"To d. W. Wilder, or d. R. Anthony: ..-.a-
There is great danger of the peace of the coun
try and the Republican cause if impeachment fails
Send to your Senators before Saturday, publi
opinion, by resolution. letters and delegations. .
~ a ROBERT q. SCHENCK, Chm'n."
This was responded to Immediately by
the parties addressed; in one instance ii
the following terms:
LEAvENwoRTH. KANs AS. May 13. 1858.
''To Robert G. Schenck:
1--WE hope and pray there will be no division
among the Senators on the conviction of AndreV
Johnson, as there is none whatever among the Re
nnhlicans of Kansas sd. ANTHONY,
I'D. w. WILDEB,
t'- an. J. PARROT.
.-....- "WM. II. RALsToN."
General Schenck communicated this tel
epram to Senator Ross, tor whom it was
intended, who dispatched the following
answer: las
WASHINGTON. May l6. 1868.
ITO D. R. Anthony and others: