The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-03-13

guilty as ihciter and provOker of the n
nameless crimes which have been in-i o
f1icted upon the freedmen of the South !; n
the two thousand murders known to i
have been committed In the State of t
Texas alone, and of the thousands of
similar atrocities which have afflicted t
the loyal citizens, white and colored, t
throughout the rebel States. +
He is guilty of aiding and abetting
the conspiracy by which republican gov /
eminent has been overthrown in the
State by which we are surrounded, and {
in the streets Of whose principal city
blood would long since have flowed if |
he could have corrupted the great sol
der into whose hands the military pow
er of the republic has, so happily for its
welfare, been committed.
For all these and many other acts of a
similar character Ton a long course of
treacherous procedure, for transcendino
all mere partisan betrayal, and affecting
the land with disorder, unsettling all
business, and making the hearts and
homes of the patriots heavier with sus=
picion and darker with dread than re-
because Andrew johnson has for his
own vile ends, his mad and selfish; am
bition, his obstinate and perverted pas
| sions, been guilty of these and other
crimes, stand ready, as always, to vote
| for his impeachment. do it with alac-
rity, because / believe that successful
removal Of this political criminal is the
surest meansaof preventing that renewal
of civil war for which l believe and
charge here in my place and in the name
of the people represent, the President
of the United States to have been stead
lily working.
Mr.. Speaker, the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Brooks), whose eloauence
and learning we all admire as heartily
as we condemn and oppose his princi-
pies, warned us, as he has often done
before, that we are in the midst of a rev.
olutionary epoch that we are approach
ing its last stage and are traversing the
same roads that history records of 9TH
er representative governments. The
remarks that gentlemen INDUCES in are
similar to those used i'll somewhat ia
nous speech delivered in front Of the
White House just two years ago. 1t
seems to me, sir, that with but two OF
three exceptions, gentlemen on this side
of the House have failed in realizing the
philosophy of the great contest through
: which we are passing.
: Sir, 1 deny that history anywhere
: shows that representative institutions
have been overthrown by legislative
t bodies. The dangers to which represen-
tatiyc governments are exposed grow
from the common tendency of the ex-
ecutNe Office to enlarge its functions.
, The TACT that there is deliberate pur-
pose persistently pursued TO persuade
: the American people that their liberties
5 are in danger from the popular branch
of the government demands that some
l reference should be made to the false
hood ofthe charge. Especially is this
: BETTING when, in resisting the active
r encroaehments ofthe Executive and the
: constant attempt to enlarge the powers
of that branch, we are met to act upon
e the great prerogatiye of impeachment,
: placed in our hands as the final instru-
+ ment of protection against such acts by
s the constitution itself.
/, Gentlemen must not lose sight of the
. great fact surrounding all the events OF
e the past two years, fact which even
$ subordinates the work of reconstruction
: itself. The battle we have been waging
with a recreant and reckless President
' has meant more than the proper rehabil-
: itation of the tfeason-cursed and war
5 stricken South. 1t was more fundament-
D al even. 1t was the struggle, sir, COM
] mon, as have remarked before, to all
] representative governments +; that strug-
G gle sure to come between the executive
0 and the legislative functions. The for
mer, from its very nature, seeks to OBJ
: tain power; the latter, seeks to restrain
: power the one performs, the other pro
!, tects. The conflict we are waging, anG
/: against which the gentleman from New
: York (Mr. Brooks) warns us, is the
t same which has been waged in Other
lands. The regal and absolute preten-
y sions of the British Crown received
: their first fatal defeat when the AK of the
: Commonwealth made the first Charles
: shorter by head. 1t was finally kill.
h ed when Parliament, speaking the voice
c of the English people, dethroned the
s Stuarts In the person of the second
$ James. Since then, Mr.. Speaker. the
: contests in Great Britain have not really
4 been between Crown and people, but
: between classes in Parliament and class
es without, with q slow but steady en-.
c largement of the basis of representation
# The men who framed our Constitution
werewise in their day and generation
0 They were mon who had studied histo-
s ry. Many among them who had heard
g from the mouths of actors therein the
e great lessons taught by the events of the
+ English Commonwealth times; that lib
e erty was ALWAYS more endangered by
It the few than the many; that the single
IS chief was more apt TO seize and hold
d power, profting by the mistakes of the
o many, than the latter was to seek and
e maintain such authority.
n That great body of men-the framer
II of our constitutional and pro
II vided against, this danger. They placed
&c the legislative function first in the emu
3 meration of powers The reason wa
s. plain. It was nearest the people The,
5 hedged in the executive and judicia