Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-03-26

fixed by the Senate. ~
Mr.. johnson moved that ten days be
allowed, but the motion TO adjourn pre-
vailed, and the Court adjourned until
tomorrow at one o'clock.
The Senate then adjourned.
TUESDAY, March 94.-The Senate met
at O'Clock as Court OF Impeachment,
and Mr.. Boutwell, from the Managers,
presented the following replication to
the answer of the President:
Replication By the House of Representa-
tives Of the United States to the dnssver
Of Andrew johnson, President of the
United States, to the. articles of I'M
: pedcItnenf exhibited against linn by the
+ House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives of the
United States have considered the sew
eral answers of Andrew johnson, Presi-
dent of the United States, to the several
articles of impeachment against him,
and by them exhibited in the name of
themselves and all.the people of the Uni
ted States, and reserving TO themselves
an advantage of exception to the insult
iiciency of his answer to each and all of
the several articles of impeachment ex-
hibited against said Andrew johnson,
President of the United States, do deny
each and every averment i'm said several
answers, or either of them, which denies
or traverses the acts, intents, crimes or
misdemeanors charged against said An
drew Johnson, in said articles of inn
parchment, or either of them, and for
replication to the said answers, do say
that the said Andrew johnson, President
of the United States, is guilty of the
high crimes and nfisdemeanors mention
ed in the said articles, and that the said
House of Representatives are ready TO
prove the same. t
After debate, as to the time for COM
mencing the trial the Senate retired for
consultation. 7o4
At 1928 the Senate reappeared, and
order having been restored the Chief
Justice said am directed to inform
the counsel that the Senate have agreed
to an order in response to their applica
ton which will now be read.
Ordered, That the Senate will COM
mence the trial of the President upon
the articles of impeachment exhibited
against him, OH Monday, the 30th day
of March, and proceed therein with all
dispatch under the III es of the Senats
sitting upon the trial of an impeach-
nIent. ..ga ait
~ - The court then adjourned until Mon
day, March 80th, at 121 o'clock.
The Democratic Rtoting Co1umh hus.N
The act of the Democratic majority in
the Ohio Senate, in dispossessing Sem
ator Homer @. Jones from the seat to
which he was elected by mojority of
the legal votes, and placing in 1t Henry
Nj. Onderdonk, who was not elected to IL
by legal or any other majority, was
simply a brazen violation of law and OF
public decency in order to increase their
majority in the Senate. They made no
pretense that Onderdonk had majority
OF the legal votes cast, but they usurped
the power to override the constitutional
regulation of the franchise, as it had
been settled for generation by the
judgment of the Supreme Conrt, and to
disfranchise those who are enfranchised
according to the Constitution, in order
to throw out Republican votes, and de-
clare Onderdonk elected.
The five Democrats constituting the
majority of the Committee on Privileges
ana Elections, announced their inde-
pendence of the Constitution and of iu-
dicial decisions in acting upon this mat
ter, by the brazen declaration that 1.-The
question is one which the Senate should
decide without regard to the decision of
any other department of the Govern
ment on the same subject;p and that in
asmuch as the Senate is made the Judge
of the election returns and qualifications
of its members, "hence no decision or
opinion of q Court, or of any other de-
partment of the Government, has amy
authority over the Senate in its decision.
This means that because the Senate is
the Judge of the elections ofits members,
therefore 1t is not bound by the consti-
tutional regulation of the suffrage, but
may change Ii so as to throw out MEM
har N mr. fkNf fo Ot.tio IL,
means that when the Democrats have
the majority in the legislative body, the
question whether any other members
shall be admitted shall depend on their
sovereign pleasure. 1t assumes that the
power of each House to judge the elcc-
ton returns of its members is the power
to alter the constitutional rule of the
franchise.
The declaration that the majority
would pay no regard TO judicial Inter
pretations of the constitutional rule of
franchise, is 50 open u confession of the
of this act, that it is hardly
necessary to argue the case. The Con-
stitution extends the suffrage to white
male citizens. The Supreme Court,
when the bench was filled by Democrat
ic Judges, decided that the preponder-
anee of blood governed the legal classiii-
SatiSh w iaCet ~ tudb pcIbOuS Witn u
preponderance ofthe blood of the white
race were white persons In the meaning
of the law. There Is no other common
sense way of deciding this matter; for
what u concession of infsriority in the
white race 1t would be, to say that the
remotest fraction of African blood in
white man, made him a negro. II
This was the Democratic constitution
al provision as TO suffrage, expounded
by n Democratic Supreme Court, and so
IL has stood for generation, although
the last Democratic Legislature before
this attempted to break the Constitu-
tion by a Legislative act, bat failed. The
Democrats, in this decennial reappear-
anee of Democratic, majority lin the
Ohio Legislature, not only disregarded
the decision of the Supreme Court, by
throwing olit "a legal votes on pretense
of mixture of negro blood, but. as this
was not enough to leave u majority for
Onderdonk, they threw out enough legal
votes, against which there was no pre-
tonse of mixed blood, to carry out their
illegal purposes.
Thus the Democratic majority placed
itself in rebellion against the Constitu-
tion and the decisions of the Court, in
order to perpetrate this outrage. And
this X OF character with all their pro-
ceedlngs during the session. Their con-
duct Is more Ike raid than Legisla-
ture. They resemble o gang OF John
Mergan's men, In possession of an Ohio
village, and striving to destroy all they
can before the troops come up. No one
can point to "a measure for the public