Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1868-05-06
FORTIETH CONGRESS.
This Afternoons Proceedings.
IMPEACHME MENT.
CONCLUSION OF MR.. BINGHAM,s AR.
GUMENT. su. ..-
EXCITING SCENES.
THE GALLERIES CLEARED.
WEDNESDAY, Nav 6.


opened at noon, with the usual formalIties.
The Chief Justice notified Mr.. Bingham to
resume his argument
Mr.. Bingham commenced bv saying that upon
the law, as read by the counsel, the acts Of l9sg
and 1195 were no longer laws, and the Presi.
dent can no more act under those laws than the
humblett citizen of the land: and, further,
under the whole legislation of the country, the
only power OF appointment given to the Presi.
dent was a limited one during the recess of the
Senate, and all such appointments expired at
(Mr. Bingham) cared nothing for the conflicting
opinions of members of the First Congress the
whole subIect was settled by the statutes, and
the continued and unbroken practice Of eighty
years; and this being the case. what authority
had the President to make 4 removal
and appointment during the session of the
Senate. He had shown conclusively yesterday
that no such action had been taken in the case
Of MIR. Pickering The law of 1889 gave no
such power, and all that the defense has said
on that point can avail them nothing, and the
plea set up by this accused President turns to
dust ard ashes. He would now read the law
OF 1875, and what he might say of that applied
equally to the law of l7g2 If the defen Sc made
here by the President is in virtue Of the Con-
stitution, how is it that Congress, in the law of
1885, restricted this power Of filling vacancies
to six months. Can it be claimed that under
this act the President has the power 10 make
vacancies cd infnit,,m. The law of ls,s}. more
fully than the Others, shows the complete power
OF the legislature over this whole subject, that
power only beng restrained by the power in
the CONSTITUTION 20 tue president to fill VA
cancies during the re cess
Mr.. Il. argued at some length that these acts
gave no such power TO the President as was
claimed. and in addition that they had all gone
by the board by reason of later legislation. The
Interpretation put upon the proyiso to the ten
ure-of-offce act by the opposing counsel Mr..
Curtis) was not in the least warranted 1t is
apparent that the term Of the President, au-
thOriZed by the Constitution and the law Is the
teim of tour years. and apply this TO the pro-
vision that in the event Of death or disability
of the President, the Vice President shall exc
cute the duties of the Office until such dlsabIl-
ity be removed: and is the Senate now to be told
that the Vice President upon whom the dutise
OF the Presidency have now devolved. that
he is TO have term. and that by reason of it
every executive Office Immediately became
vacant. and are yeu TO carry this out TO the
absurdIty that the Offices are again TO be-
come vacant by the removal of the disability
This won't do. Andrew Johnson has no term
In pursuance of this point Mr.. Il. argued that
all the officers appointed by Mr. Lincoln had
the right to hold their offices until the end of
the term for which he was elected. Ii this
constitution is to be altered to SUIT this guilty
President, then every mortal man must come 10
the conclusion that since the 18th day OF April,
Ic65, we have had no constitutional Secretary
of Stat, OF War; OF the Treasury, or of The.
Navy. Senators, your law means no such
thing. 1t never entered into the mind of a
single member of the 39th Congress. The law
was passed for no such purpose There was
no doubt about the true construction of the
law, and the accused had no doubt on IT and
never set up such a plea as he has until after
these impeachment proceedings commenced.
If Mr. Lincoln had lived, he thought that every
Senator would have held that he (Mr. L. could
not have removed one of these Cabinet oftic-rs
during the whole four year,. The statute rx-
pIessIy states that they shall hold their offices
Tor the term of the President by whom they
weIe appointed, and for one mon tn thereafter
What man can say that the act of 1s6s did not
sweep away every word of the acts of 1879 and
and -95; that is, with reference TO those officers
who are appointed by ano with the advice and
consent of the Senate. Here is an appoint tment
dd interim during the session of the S9nate: here
is an appointment 10 fill q vacancy occurring
during the session of the Senate. But what
do the gentlemen say Tha: the attempt
did not succeed. Well, he (Mr. b. had
sufficiently answered that point yest-r.
day. Again, they say, suppose after all
that this act did not include Mr.. Stanton
so that it is unconstitutional. He (Mr. b. J had
further; but suppose that these absurd points
were conced ded, what answer was that to the
2d, Sd, and eth articles Of impeachment, Ii
was no answer at all, and the counsel we'll
knew II. The counsel were a little too fast
The Attorney General, Mr.. Stanbery. had said
that this was an odious unconstitutional law:
that it was made only to affect the President
but he forgot that the 5th section made every
man who assisted the President in violating its
provisions, guilty Of high CRIME and misde-
meaEor, and equally unans werable. The Con-
stitution itself provides that after the i'm
peached party is removed, he is liable to in
dIctment and punishment for the crlmes for
which he was impeached. They had heard
during the progress Of this trial extraordinary
language on this floor. The counsel (Mr Mel.
sony had stated that neither he nor the Presi.
dent regarded the House of Representatives as
having the right to impeach the President or
that the Senate bad the right to try him. They
were all very much obliged to The President
for his grace in permitting the Senate to sit on
his trial. The counsel had, however, been
very careful not to say whether the President
would abide by the judgment of the Senate.
know no
was playing the same role as in the case of the
suspension Of Mr.. Stanton. He would allow
the Senate to sit on this trial. and if their iudg.
ment did not suit him he would resist it. He
(Mr. b. would not be surprised if the Presi-
dent should tomorrow, through his Adiutant
General, attempt to disperse the Senate His
answer say. that ne does not consider the Senate
as having the authority to try, because of the
absence OF twenty Senators regularly elected
from ten States, which was a question with
which the President had no more TO do than the
fance unparalleled. He (Mr. b. hoped the
Senate would emulate the example of the
French Assembly OF 1879, when Mirabeau, the
peoples tribune, told the minions of the king
that bayOnets had no terrors tor the representa-
uyes of a free people. The counsel MI. .Eyartsl
says the article in which his client is accused
OF endeavoring TO seduce a gallant officer of the
army Is miserable accusation. Is III Such
an accusation, in any country where the laws
are properly execute, would have cost any
Executive his head.
of which SO much had been said, botn
by the opening and the closing counsel,
Ii charged the President with sediuous lam
guage with respect to the 39th Congress- What
did the counsel say about it; they referred to the
seditiOn law Of 1898, and asserted that il was
odious, he did not know that they had said
that 1t was unconstitutional, nor court or no
authority on the constitution had ever pro-
nounced it 10 be so. He (Mr. b. granted that
such laws were not proper for a free republic
except in times Of national peril, and IL was a
time of national peril then, the French minis
ter was going around stirring up sedition The
counsel had said that Jefferson came into DOW
er opposing this law, but he did not state that
Jefferson Immediately re-enacted it in reference
to your army, and there il stands unchallenged
IN your statute books to this day. Ii subjects
every oficer OF your army and every private
to court.martial to punishment, even IN to death
for speaking disrespectfully OF the President,
Congress or superior omcer. But the gentleman
had spoken about the liberty otspeech. He mr..
b. stood for the liberty Of the Constitution
but not for that sedition which would destroy /
the Constitutions; the peace Of men in their
graves. Mr.. B. continued in support Of the
charges contained in the lith article, comment.
ing at some length upon the kilograms of the
President to Gov. Parsons, Of Alabama, as in
sdtcatiog his intention and desire to oppose the
v9ooastruction policy of CNpgress. What right
had he to meddle with it7 The gentleman mn.
deYto0k to draw distinction between Andrew
johnson as citizsh and as President. He
(Mr. b had thought at the time that the ger.
fianAn UOuld have nj caI