The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1868-05-14
From the Cincinnati Gazette.
MR., BINGHAM'S SPEECH
HIS ELOQUENT PERORATION.
WASHINGTON. Nav

HIS ELOQUENT PERORATION.
..-..~ .. =. WASHINGTON, May 6.
Every available spot in the Senate
corridors near the doors, and both
and diplomatic galleries,
were crowded to-day to hear the
close of Mr.. Bingham's speech. He
occupied two hours Of the session,
thus making the whole speech two
days and half long. Most of the
time was occupied in continuation
Of his legal argument. He closed as
follows:
Senators, you will pardon me, but
I will detain you but q few moments
longer, for asking your attention to
another view of this question be-
tween the people and the Executive.
l use the words of EEgland's brill
liant historian, when I say, chad not
the legislative power Of England
triumphed over the usurpations of
James, with what a .cl ash, felt and
heard to the. furtherest end of the
world, would the whole vast fabric
Of society have fallen May, God
forbid that any future historian shall
record of this days proceedings,
that, by reason of the failure of the
legislative power of the people to
triumph over the usurpations of an
apostate President, through the de-
fection Of the Senate Of the United
States, the just fabric of American
empire fell and perished from the
earth. That great revolution of
1858, in England, was a forerunner
of our own Constitution. The de-
'clarative rights to which I have re
ferred, but reasserted the ancient
Constitution of England, not found
in any written instrument, but. scat
tered through the statutes of. centu
ries. The great principles thus re-
asserted by declaration Of rights in
1858 were, first, that no law should
be passed without the consent of the
representative of the nation; no
tax should be laid; no regular sol
diery should be kept up no citizen
should be deprived, for single day,
of his liberty by arbitrary will of
the Sovereign, no tool of power
should plead the royal mandate in
justification for a violation of any le-
gal right of the humbiest citizen, and
forever swept away the assumption
that the executive prerogative was
above the fundamental law. These
were the principles, Senators, in
volved in that day in the controversy
between the people and their recus
ant Sovereign. They are precisely
the principles this day involved in
this controversy between the people
and their recusant President. With
out revolution, Senators, like the
great Parliament of 1858, you are
asked to reassert the principles OF
the Constitution of your country not
to be searched for through statutes
of centuries, but to be found in that
grand sacred writing given to US by
the fathers of the Republic. The
Constitution of the United States, as
I have said, embodies all that is val
liable of Englano's declaration OF
rights, of England's Constitution
and laws -..,-
It was ordained by the people
amidst the commissions and ago
nies Of nations. By its express
provisions, all men within It's juris-
dictien 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 tribu
nal for justice for every injury done
either to citizen OR to the State.
It is this spirit of justice, of liberty
Of equality. Senators, that makes
your Constitution dear to freeme1
in this and in all lands, in that it se
cures to every man his rights, and
to the people at large the inestima
BILE right of self-government, and
that is the right which is this day
challenged by this usurping Presi-
dent; for if he be law to himself
the people are no longer their own
lawmakers, through their Represen
tatives in Congress assembled: He
simply becomes their Dictator; il
he becomes so, he becomes SO by
the Judgment of the Senate, not by
the text of the Constitution, not by
any Interpretation heretofore put
upon it by any act of the people
nor by any act of the peoples rep
resentatives. They have discharged
their duty they have presented him
at the bar Of the Senate for trial, in
that he has usurped and attempted
to combine in himself the legisla
tive and executive powers of the
great people, thereby claiming fol
himself power by which he may
annihilate their Government. We
have seen that where the supremacy
of their Constitution was challenged
by battle, the people made such sac
rifices to maintain it as have no par
allel in human history. Senators
can it be that after this triumph O.
law over anarchy, of right oyel
wrong, of patriotism over treason.
the Constitution and laws are again
to be assailed, in the capital of the
nation, in the person of the Chic
Magistrate; and that by the. judg
ment of, the Senate he is to be pro
tected in that usurpation !? / say
Senators, that by the President, III
his answer, and by the representa-
tions of his counsel. you are delib
erately asked in your judgment tc
set the accused above the Constitu-