The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1868-03-07
Impeaching the President.

However impeachment goes, the radical
party in congress has flung itself the stone
on which it is to be finally broken. Such
haste to impeach the executive, because, as
he says in his special message to the senate,
he has ''sought to appeal to that FINAL arbit
er fixed by the constitution" in order to sus-
tain inviolate the powers of the high Office
committed to his hands, discloses the unwill.
ingness of congress to abide the decision.
1t is because the radicals are afraid of the
judicial decision which the President invokes,
that they fly to their experiment of impeach-
ment. They are anxious to carry through
their partisan scheme of removing the Presi-
dent before such determination can be
reached.
Suppose that the senate convict aud the
President is deposed from his office. The
leading and palpable charge is that he has
violated the tenure-of.office law in removing
Stanton. If the supreme court subsequently
decide that that law is unconstitutional, what
is to be done then ? We should have the
case of a removal of the President for dis
putting law which has been shown to be no
la,c. The court would have decided that he
had full authority to remove Stanton, while
congress would have impeached and depos-
ed him for doing it With even the posi-
bility of such a dilemma staring it in the
face, and especially in view of the moment
Gus consequences involved in this business,
a congress not utterly partisan and revolu-
tionary would prudentiy forbear this reck-
less haste until it had ascertained whether
the law ON which these proceedings are bas
ed really has the validity to furnish war
rant for them.
If the President cannot thus test the con-
slit vS,f 1a1 r,f nv
ing its authority over himself within his own
sphere, then congress is practically supreme.
How else is any law to have its real authori-
ty established? 1t is an egregious error to
suppose that the President is clothed with
authority by the laws of congress, when all
know that his office is both created and de-
fined by the constitution. A law may limit
his power, of course but it must be law
made gin pursuance of" the constitution
from which he derives all authority. He is
sworn, first, to preserve, protect and defend
the constitution of the United States" and
next, to execute the laws made in pursuance
thereof" 1t is to be taken, on the instant,
that he contumaciously refuses to execute o
law, because he questions whether it does
not encroach on his constitutional right and
authority? Is he not at perfect liberty in
such case to satisfy himself whether law
Is made IN pursuance of" the constitution
II not, then how can it be done for him?
ana what shall prevent congress from pas
sing fagrantly unconstitutional statute at
any time, and impeaching or removing a
President tor merely testing it? In this
way, 1t would be short work for any party
IN the future to rid itself of President, who
CHANGED to be obnoxious to its Opinions
But not only is 1t supremely proper that the
executive should take such a step, it is his
clear rfghtto do 1t; nay, II is his sworn duty.
For he acts not simply for himself as one of
the departments of the government, but for
the people of the nation, who have eonfded
to him in trust for their use alone, the DOW
ers of the high Office he temporarily occu-
pies. Let it not be lost sight of in this
hour OF excitement that it is not the indi-
vidual now occupying the presidential chair
who IS to be defended from legislative ag-
gression, but the executive Office itself, a
coordinate branch of our government, whose
very existence is threatened by the encroach-
ment OF selfish and violent party.
Unless an appeal such As the President
seeks to take to the judiciary, and which he
assures the senate is all he proposes by this
act of constructive disobedience, can be
made in this manner, we have no executive;
tor congress can at any time ensnare him
with legislation he may question the author
ity OF only at the risk of impeachment and
removal. The triple nature of our govern
mem rs then done with. There will be on
more need of a Judiciary than OF an execu-
tive; and we shall live under the reign of an
irresponsible and unrestrained oligarchy.
The Peopie are far more deeply interested