Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-05-20
Extract from MT Bingha ms
Argument.

Extract from Mr. Binghs ms
Argument.
The following is the concluding por-
ton of Mr.. Bingham's Argument be-
fore the Court of impeachment:
SENAroRs-You viii pardon me, but
1 will detain you but few moments
longer for asking your attention to an
other view of this question between
the people and the Executive. l use
the words OF EngIand's brilliant histo-
rian when 1 say, Had not the legisls-
tive power of England triumphed over
the usurpations of James, with crash
felt and heard to the farthest ends of
the world, would the whole vast fabric
of society have fallen" May God for
bid that future historians shall record
of this days proceedings, and that by
reason of the failure of the legislative
power of the people to triumph over
the usurpations of an spostate Presi-
dent, through the detection of the
Senate of the Uuited States, this vast
fabric of the American empire fell and
perished from the earth. That great
revolution of 1888 in England was 8
forerunner of our own Constitution
The Declarative Rights 10 which have
referred but re-ssserted the ancient
Constitution of England. The great
principles thus rs-asserted by the Dec
iaration of Rights in 1888 were:
First. That no law should be passed
without the consent of the representa-
tives of the nation. No tax shall be
laid, no regular soldiers should be kept
ND, no citizen should be deprived for a
single day of his liberty by an arbitrary
will of q sovereign, no tool of power
should plead the royal mandate in
justification for the violation of any law
or right of the humblest citizen, and
forever swept away the assumption that
an executive prerogativs was above
the fundamental law. These were the
principles, Senators, invoved IN that
day, in controversy between the people
and their recusant sovereign. They are
precisely the sameprinciphs this day in
volFed in this controversy between the
neople and their recussnt President
without revolution. Senators, like the
great Parliament of 1858, you are asked
to reassert the principles Of. the Con
stitution of your country, not to be
searched for through the statues of
centuries, but to be found in that grand
and sacred writ, given to US by the
fathers of the Republic. The Con-
stitution of the United States, as l
have said, embodies all that is valuable
of England's declaration of right, of
Enelands constitution and laws. 1t
was ordained by the people amidst the
conyulsions and agonies of nations
Bv its express provisions, all men with
in its jurisdiction are equal before the
law. and equally entitled to those rights
of person which are as universal as the
material structure of man, and equally
liable to answer to its tribunal ior jus
tice for every injury done either to
citizen or to State. 1t is this spirit of
Justice. of liberty, of equality, Sena-
tors. that makes your constitution dear
tn freemen in this and al lands, in that
II secures to every man mis- rights and
tn neople at large the inetimable right
of selEgoYernment. Ard that IS the
right which is this day challenged by
i this usurping President. For if he be
a law TO himself, the people are no lon
Ger their own lawmakers through their
representatives in CongRss assembled.
He simply becomes ther dictator. If
he becomes so, he becomes so by the
Judgment of the SeuatCnot BY the
text of the Constitution, not BY any
Interpretation heretofon put upon it,
not by any act of the people, norby any
act of the peoples representatives.
They have discharged their duty. They
have presented him st the bar of the
Senate for trial, in that he has usurped
and attempted to combine in himself
the Legislative and executive powers OF
the great people, thereby claiming for
himself power by which be may an
initiate their government. We have
seem that where the supremacy OF
their Constitution was challenged by
battle. the people made such sacrifice
to maintain it that il has no parallel in
human histories. Senators, can it be
that after this triumph Of law over the
anarchy of right, over wrong Of patriot
ism. over treason to the Constitution
our laws are again to be assailed in
the CAPITAL of the nation, III the per
son of the Chief Magistrate, and BY
the Judgment of the Senate he IS to be
protected in that usurpation? l say
Senators, that by the President and
his answer, and by the representative;
of his counsel, you are deliberately
asked does your judgement to set the
accused above the Constitution which
he has violated, and the people whom
he has betrayed, snd that, too, upor
the pretext that the President has the
right judicially to construe the Con
stitution for himself, and Judlcially tC
decide for himself the validity OF YOU
laws, and to plead in justification q
YOUR bar; that his only purpose il
thus violating the Constitution and the
laws is to test the validity of the law
and ascertain the construction OF thu
Constitution by his own motion in the
courts of justice, and thereby to sus
pend this proceeding.
1 ask you, Senators, how long mer
would deliberate upon the question
whether a private citizen arraigned a
| the bar of one of your tribunals of jus
tice for criminal violation of the law
should be peEnitted to interpose as I
! plea in the justification of his crimins
I act. that his only purpose was to in
terpret the Constitution and laws TO
himself, that he violated the law in tbs
exercise of his prerogatiye to test it
validity hereafter at such a day a
might suit his own convenience, in thu
courts of justice. Su5sly, Senators, it i
as competen. for private citizens to In