Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-05-14
QDblo STATESMAN.
ARGUME ENT OF
SEN AToR GRIMES,
OF IOWA,
Against Impeachment, in Secret
Session. 30

OF IOWA,
Against impeachment, in Secret
Session. go
WASHINGTON, May IL, 1868.
The following is the argument delivered
by Senator Grimes to-day, in the secret
session of the court, against impeachment:
| MR.. PRESIDENT AND SENATORS - The
President of the United States stands at TIE
| bar of the Senate charged with the commits
| zion of high crimes and miSdemeanors.-
The principal offense charged against him
is embodied in various forms In the first
eight articles of impeachment. This of
| fense is alleged to consist in violation of
the provisions of the first section of an act
of Congress entitled IAN act regulating the
tenure of certain civil Offices" approved
! March 2, 1867; in this, that OH the twenty
first day OF February, eighteen hundred
and sixty-eight, the President removed or
attempted to remove Edwin M. Stanton
| from the Office of Secretary for the Depart
ment of War, and issued letter of author
! ity to General Lorenzo Thomas as Secre-
| tary for the Department of War dd interim.
\ The House of Representatives charge in
their three first articles that the President
attempted to remove Mr.. Stanton, and that
1 he issued his letter of authority to General
| Thomas with an intent to violate the law
of Congress, and with the further intent to
violate the Constitution of the United
States. The President, by his answer, ad-
mits that he sought to substitute General
Thomas for Mr.. Stanton at the head of Ghe
Department of War, but insists that
1 he had the right to make such substi-
tuition under the laws then and now in
| force, and denies that in anything that he
1 has done or attempted to do he intended to
| violate the laws or the Constitution of the
United States. To this answer there is
general traverse by the House of Repre-
seutatives, and thereon issue is Joined. Of
that issue we are the triers, and nave sworn
that in that capacity we will do impartial
Justice according to the Constitution and
the laws" 1t will be perceived that there
Is nothing involved in the first eight arti-
cles of impeachment but pure questions of
law growing out of the construction of
statutes. Mr.. Johnson's guilt or innocence
upon those articles depends wholly on the
fact whether or not he had the power, after
the passage of the Tenure of Office act of
| March 2, 1867, to remove Mr.. Stanton and
| issue the letter OF appointment to General
/ Thomas, and upon the further fact whether,
having no such legal authority, he never
| theless attempted to exercise 1t with in
tent to violate the Constitution of the
| United States" Mr.. Stanton was appoint
ed Secretatary for the Department of War
| by Mr. Lincoln, on the 10Th day of January,
1862. and has not since been reappointed or
'recommissioned. His commission was is
Issued to continue s.for and during the pleas
ure OF the President" His appointment
was made under the act of August z, 17S9
the first two sections of which read as fol-
lows: There shall be an Executive De-
\ partment. to be denominated the Depart
1 ment of War, and there shall be a princi-
| pal officer therein, to be called the Sec
retary for the Department of War,
who shall perform and execute such
] duties as shall from time to time be enjoin-
ed on or entrusted to him by the President
/ of the United States, and the said principal
officer shall conduct the business of the
said department in such manner as the
President of the United States shall from
time to time order and instruct. There
shall be in the said department an inferior
officer, to be appointed by said principal
officer, to be employed therein as he shall
deem proper, and to be called the chief clerk
OF the Department of War, and whenever
the said principal officer shall be removed
from Office by the President of the United
States, and in any other case of vacancy,
shall, during the same, have charge of the
records, books and documents" At the
same session OF Congress was passed the
| act of July 27, 1889, establishing the De-
partment of Foreign Affairs. The two first
sections of the two acts are precisely SINH
lar, except in the designation of the two
| departments. Upon the passage of this last
act occurred one of the most memorable
| AID one of the ablest debates that ever took
place in Congress. The subject under dis
cussion was the tenure of public officers,
| and especially the teure by which the sec
retaries of the executive departments
should hold their offices. Without going
into the particulars of that great debate, it
! is sufficient to say that the reasons assign
/ ed by MIR. Madison and his associates in
favor OF "tenure during the pleas
ure of the President" we're adopted
as the true constitutional theory on
| this ubject. That great man, with al
most prophetic anticipation of this case,
declared ON the 18th day of June, 1883, in
his speech in the House of Representatives,
of which he was member from Virginia,
that ''it is evidently the intention of the
constitution that the first magistrate should
be responsible for the Executive Depart
ment. So far, therefore, as we do not make
the officers who are to aid him in the du-
4 ties of that department responsible to him
; he is not responsible to the country.
Again, is there no danger that an officer,
when he is appointed by the concurrence
of the Senate and his friends in that body,
may choose rather to risk his establishment
on the favor of that branch than rest ii
upon the discharge of his duties to the sat-
iSiaetion of the executive branch, which is
constitutionaly authorized to inspect and
control his conduct? And ii it should hap
pen that the officers connect themselves
with the Senate they may mutually sup
port each otter, and for want of efficacy
reduce the power of the President to q
mere yapor, in which case his responsible
ity would be annihilated and the expecta-
ton of it unjust. The high executive Off
i GERS Joined in cabal with the Senate would
Law the foundation of discord and end in al
assumption of the executive power, only to
be removed by revolution of the Govern
ment." 1t will be observed that it is here
/ Ill ! I. sN s1%l ~. 81,
tablishes the tenure of office, and in order tC
put this question beyond future cavil, Chie
Justice Marshall, in his " Lite of Washing.
ton," volume 2, page 1872 says: "After ar
| ardent discussion, which consumed several
days, the committee divided, and the
amendment was negatived by majority o.
thirty four to twenty. The opinion thus
expressed by the House of Representative
y did not explicitly convey their sense of the
Constitution Indeed. the express grant o.
the power to the President rather implied 6
right in the Legislature to give or with
hold it at their discretion. To obviate any
Misunderstanding of the principle on which
the question had been decided, Mr., Benson
moved i'm the House. when the report of tn,
committee of the Whole was taken up, tt
amend the second clause in the bill so al
clearly to imply the power of removal to b,
,, solely in the President. He gave motto,
that if he should succeed in this III
would move to strike out the words which
g had been the subject of debate. "If thes
words continued" lie said, 1.-THE power o
: removal by the President might hereafter
appear to be exercised by virtue of leg
lislative grant only, and consequently
: be subjected to legislative in
stability, when he was well satisfied
: in his own mind that it was by fair con
struction fixed in the Constitution. Til
: motion was seconded by Mr.. Madison, ant
both amendments were adopted" An6
3 Judge Marshall adds, LAS the bill passed
into law it has ever been considered as
. full expression of the sense of the Legisla
ture on this important part OF the Ameri
can Constitution" And Chancellor Ken