Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1868-04-29
SPEAKER COLFAx ON IMPEACHMENT.
Letter 10 the New York Union League
Club.

Schuyler Coliax, in letter TO the N Y
Union Club, after declining to be present al
the Inauguration of their new club house,
on the evening of the 10th, on account of
important engagements at Washington,
compliments the Club for its devotion to the
cause of freedom and nationality, adding
And l congratulate you also, gentlemen,
on the well founded hope that our distract
cd land is at last to have peace. The House
of Representatives, by whose answering
fidelity, with the concurrent action Of the
other branch Of Congress, the South has
been saved from the rebel rule to which
President johnson had determined to sur
render it, decided at last that duty to the
country compelled them to arraign that
persistent nullifier of law at the bar of the
Senate, and end, if possible, the discords
and antagonisms he seemed determined to
perpetuate. His last defiance of law in the
removal of the Secretary Of War and ap-
pointing a successor while the Senate was
in session (after failing to induce the Gen
eral of The Army TO aid him in the illegal
work even by Offering to submit in his
stead TO the Imprisonment which the law
entailed upon its violators) proved to The
House as IL did TO the country, that for
without the slightest attempt at party con-
centration by caucus or otherwise, the Re
publican Representatives from Maine to
California, voted, as one man, that the issue
which the President seemed determined to
force upon them should be promptly met.
In that Senate chamber where Andrew
Johnson was inaugurated into the Vice
Presidency, from which, alas, an assassin's
bullet elevated him TO the Presidency, this
greatest of American trials progresses day
by day. Amid the sharp encounters of the
able lawyers arrayed there against each
other, can never forget that solemn Prosi-
Dental oath by which, in the pointed and
peculiarly impressive language Of the Con-
stitution, the Chief Magistrate swears, be-
fore God and man. that "he will take care
that the laws be faithfully executed )" and,
side by side with that Presidential oath
memory constantly arrays the Presidential
acts of the past two years. While not pre-
Stunning to discuss the question with Sena-
tors whose oaths bind them to impartial
iustice-iustice TO the accused, and justice
70 the people whose representatives appear
at their bar as his accusers-l have not
been willing TO doubt the result His con
viction ends the incessant resistance TO law
which revived the rebel spirit OF the South,
with its mourn1ul record of disgraceful riot,
public massacre, and private assassination,
and which has kept the whole country IN
turmoil and discord His acquittal indorses
all his claims of power for the remainder
of this Presidential term.
Have YOU considered what these claims
fre, which viii be thus concluded and JUS
titled? In his answer, by which he makes
UP the issue with the House, he explicitly
states that he has the right, under the Con-
stitution, TO suspend an officer, even Of as
high rank as a Cabinet Minister, mot un-
iii the next meeting of the Senate, or until
the Senate should have acted upon the
case, but 'indefnitely, and at the pleasure
of the President Il quote his exact Words
aud this when the Senate is in session and
have notified him that they refuse TO con
cur in the suspension And he also de-
clares. i'm the same answer, that when Gen
Emorv pointed him TO heorder which en-
bodied, and quoted in full, the law that en-.
acted that the headquarters Of Che General
of The Army shall be at Washington that
he shall not be removed, suspended on re-
lieved from command, or assigned 10 duty
elsewhere, except at bis own request, with
out the previous approval of the Senate,
and that all orders relating 10 military opc
rations shall be issued through him, the
President, Il again quote bis exact Ian
guage) after reading the order, observed
This is not in accordance with the Consti
tuition Of the United States, which makes
NC COMMANDMENT Chief of the Army and
Navy, or of the language Of the commission
which you hold.
Such arc the claims Of the President,
which he has not concealed, and which are
doubtless to be carried out if he goes from
the bar of the Senate acquitted. The coun-
try scarcely realizes low much it has been
indebted to Gen. Grants fidelity to law,
and his infexible refusal Ia be used in aid
of It's violation. Had some other officer
been in his place, who would have consent
ed TO carry cut the Presidents purposes,
the claims, so highly avOwed in his answer,
would, long ere this, have ripened into ac
ton With the President acquitted and
this answer Of his indorsed by his triers,
docs anyone doubt that the same hand that
struck down the manned heroes Of the war,