The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1868-01-10
The 8eaford Gaz&tte.
IMPEACHMENT.
The Minority Report of the Ylnpeach-
ulent Committed.

The following is the report of Messrs.
Eldridge and Marshall, members of the
Judiciary Committee, to which was
referred the subject of Impeaching the
President. Read it.
The undersigned, agreeing with our
associates of the minority of the COM
mittee i'm their views of the law. and
in the conclusions that the evidence
before the committee presents no case
for the impeachment Of the President,
might, if they had stopped there, have
! been content simply to have Joined in
the report which they have submitted.
! But as they, as we'll as the majority,
have felt it their duty to go further,
| and express their cenSure and cOndem-
nation of the President, we feel that it
is due to ourselves, and to the position
we occupy, to presentas briefly as posi-
BILE few additional remarks for the
consideration of the House and of the
country.
Having determined that the evidence
! does not show that the President has
been guilty of any act or crime for
which, under our Constitution and laws
he can or ought to be impeached, this
conclusion, it seems to us, is the deter
mination of the whole question sub
mitted by the House to the committee
1t is the commission by the President
of an impeachable Offense only that
can subject him to our official jurisdie-
ton, or justify us, a committee of the
House of Representatives, or even the
House ITSELF as such, in challenging
his official acts.
AS the report of the majority does
not charge the President with any act
recognized by any statute or law of the
land, as a crime or miSdemeanOr, we
can but regard the charges preferred as
political or partisan demonstration,
tending and intended to bring him into
Odium and contempt among the peo-
pie. AS an unjustifable attempt to
excite their suspicious, "SpGrgere UOceS
IN UuLgatm dna6iguaS," we utterly deny
the right Of the committee, or any
member thereof, as such, to do this.
AS citizens, as politicians, we may
criticiSe, find fault with and condemn
the entire administration Of the Presi-
dent; but as committee of the House,
considering the charge referred to it
as members of Congress, acting official
ly, we have no such right, power or
jurisdiction.
1HC LAGCuGlSG 10 OIlG VI GIlG CO-OIul-
nate departments of this government,
invested with certain defined conStitu-
tiOnal powers and prerOgatiVes, over
which the Legislature has no control,
and with the constitutional exercise of
which the Legislative Department has
no right to interfere. The original
source Of all executive and legislative
power is the Same-the- people; the
Il Nf ORG
the same-the Constitution. In his con-
stitutional and legislative sphere; in
the exercise and conduct of his depart
-, -; H. rle'oiti0.,t i7 DO free to act
and as independent as the Congress.
While acting within the bounds
prescribed for it by the Constitution,
he is no more accountable or response
bic to Congress than Congress is to
him. Congress has no more authority
to censure and condemn him than he
has to censure and condemn Congress.
His discretion exercised within the
bounds of the Constitution, is no more
subject to the animadversiOn or reprOOf
Of Congress than are the constitutional
and discretionary acts of Congress to
his.
Neither Congress or the President
has any powers or authority not de-
rived from and found in the COnStltu-
ton. The only question with reference
to which the committee were authorized
to inquire, was whether the charge a.
gainst the President were true, and con-
stituted an offence or offences subjecting
him to impeachment. Certainly If this
is not the only question referred to the
committee, it is the only one which
the committee, as such, has inVestlgat-
ed.
The political purpose by the acts of
the President has not for one moment
engaged the attention Of the committee.
WemOst certainly have no other motive
than to serve our country and do our
duty. In the matter referred to us we
have never once, in the taking of teS
timOny or the examination of witness
es, supposed that any question other
than the impeachment was properly
before US. The Impeachment of the
President, the chief officer of this great
Republic, the bare inquiry with view
to ascertain whether he had committed
any offense for which he ought or
might be put upon trial before the
most august tribunal of the world, i'm
pressed us from the beginning with
most solemn awe.
We endeavored, in the investigation,
to exclude from our minds every ques-
ton of mere politics, and as far as
possible, to be unintiuenced by party
bias. We were admonished that in
one sense, the nation, the people, in
the person of their Executive head,
were on trial before the world, and that
personal animosity and party politics
should be infieXibly and scrupulously
fOrUOttan and IGNORED
For any cause, to have shrunk from
a full and careful investigation of the
great question of impeachment, was
cowardice; to have pursued it in the
spirit of party, to have degraded 1t M
to mere investigation of political
policy, with reference to partisan sue
cess, would have been meanneSs, and
would have disgraced the nations con-
stitutional head.
We repeat, therefore, that the in
vestigatiOn of the committee was, so
far as we took part in it, with the sole
view to ascertain whether the Presi-
dent, under the charge preferred a.
gainst him, was guilty ofany impeach-
able offense. Not only so, but with
the belief that it was the only question
we were authorized or expected to in
quire into. Not a witness was called or
examined with any view to proving
case for merely censuring or condemn
ing the political action of the Presi-
dent.
No suggestion was made, or intIma-
ton given by the majority of the COM
M ittoa 1ptiI tho resolution Of conSur6