Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-02-29
THE IMPEACHMENT.
More Opinions OF the Leading
Northern Press.
From the New York world.l

in the world. This right is caieu IN
question by pretended law, which is in
such hagrant violation of the Constitn-
ton, as well as of all precedents, that this
same Stanton, who is a lawyer and has
been Attorney General, advised the Pres
ident 10 veto it. And now the President
is TO be impeached in Stanton's interest
because he believes the law TO be uncon-
stitutional, and institutes proceedings TO
bring it to judicial test If the prece-
dent now set is to be followed, it will be
in the power Of any future Congress to
summarily eject any future President
Congress has merely to pass some un-
constitutional law which reverses the
whole past practice Of the Government,
and when the President takes the hrst
steps for bringing it to a Judicial test,
forthwith put him out Of office by articles
of impeachment. We might as well
abolish the farce of Presidential elections
| if Congress can thus unmake elected
Presidents at their caprice.
From the New York Herald, J ..oh,,.,,
then, is to be hurried through; but we
shall be Every much disappointed" If
Mr.. Ingersolls expectations are realized.
Stanton himself stands committed as
constitutional adviser of the President
against this tenure of Office law as an
unconstitutional act. Some of the clear
est heads of the Senate on the Republi-
can side have expressed their doubts
| concerning it. But before this impend-
ing indictment from the House can be
pushed through the Senate the people
will be apt to enter into the general ar
gument before the court. The New
Hampshire election (l0th of march, is
too far off, There is no time to be lost,
and from the visible and universal COM
motion among the people of this metrop-
oils the public mind is fully impressed
with the dangers of the crisis and the
necessity of Immediate action. How?
Through the only available constitutional
method left the people, of immense mass
meetings, here, there, and everywhere,
and of earnest and emphatic resolutions
against this impeachment and all the
| other revolutionary measures and ten
denotes of this Radical Congress. The
city of New York, which gave, in her
memorable Union Square mass-meeting
of April, 1861, the grand impulse to the
war for the Union which saved the Union
from dissolution-this imperial city, we
say, should, as she doubtless will in this
crisis, lead off in another initial popular
uprising in behalf of the Constitution
against consolidated despotism.
What is the Executive Department of
the United States Government to-day 2.
Is it the Presidential Office of Washing
| ton. or jackson or Lincoln Mol 1t
has been already cut down by Congress
almost to nothing. The President is
snubbed by his military subordinates,
his orders are openly de6ed and resisted
by one of his Cabinet officers, forced
upon him by the Senate, and his military
interiors, through his civic interiors,
ignoring him as nonsntity, communi-
cate directly their official proceedings to
the two Houses of Congress. Various
bills are pending to make the Supreme
Court equally powerless against any law
of Congress, however hagrantly uncon.
stitutional, or to make this department
a convenient instrument ofthe dominant
marty in Congress. With these things
before us, surely we have nothing to ex-
pect but revolutionary measures of
holder character with the removal of
President johnson; for then bare ma
iority of each house will be sufficient for
the Radical programme of President
Wade and Senator Sumner-a pro-
gramme which unquestionably involves
the extension of universal negro suffrage
over all the United States by act OF Con-
gress.
From the N. Y. Times lRepublicssn)'I
There can be no doubt, we presume, in
any ones mind, that the Supreme Court
is the proper tribunal for the decision OF
the question involved in this particular
conflict between the President and Con-
gress. 1t is not political question in
any such sense as could exclude it from
the jurisdiction of that court. Ii does
not involve any exercise of political SOW
ereiguty, as the reconstruction acts are
said to do. 1t is simply o question con-
cerning the relative powers and rights of
the Executive and the Legislative de-
partments, in the matter OF appointment
and removal of civil officers of the Gov
ernment. Does the Constitution confer
on the President official power which
Congress, by the tenure OF office bill,
seeks to invade and take from him 1t |
is purely a question Of Interpretation
and constructIon-and clearly one which |
neither party can claim to decide for |
itself Both must submit to the judg- |
ment of the common arbiter which the |
Constitution itself provides.
The impeachment of the President, ii
pushed to a trial in advance OF such
decision by the Supreme Court, is in vio-
lation of this principle. 1t is an attempt
of one of the parties to the controversy to
decide it for both. 1t assumes that Con-
gress had q right to pass the law, and the
President, in denying the right, commits
a crime and incurs a penalty-not only
the penalty which the law itself pre-
scribes, but the higher penalty of re-
moval from Office which follows convic-
ton under process Of impeachment.
And it makes the Senate, which is one OF
the parties to the enactment Of the law
a court for trying the President Of what
is an offense only as the law itself makes
it one, and gives the Senate the full power
also of deciding the constitutionahty Of
its own action. Suppose the House
should impeach the President, and the
Senate should convict him and dePose
him from Office for having acted in vio-
lation of this law, and the Supreme Court
should afterward, in due course Of its ju-
dicial action, decide the law 70 be IN
constitutional, what would be the posi-
tion Of the President and the Senate be-
fore the countay2 Must the President be
punished for maintaining the authority Of
the Constitution against an invalid Law :
Or is tie Senats's judgment Of the Con-
eitution to override that Of the Supreme
Court2