Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-03-10
STATESMAN
IMPEACHMENT
"a sPEEECH Of o
HON. G. ". MORGAN,
sPEEECH Of
OF OHIO,
OF OHIO, goire9
I'm the House OF Representatives
February go, 1858, the House he.
ing In Committee of the Whole
on the ARTICLES of Inn peach
meng Reported from the
, Committee. gr.sr If -
FcoNcLusroN.l

tl -rr4ol-t COMmAstoe. nraf| fnf.
tcoNcLusroN. 5t.i o.
Sir, ! appeal to this honorable body t,
pause and reflect before it is too late
What is proposed to be done2 To de
pose the President of the United States
and place in his stead a person who die
as much as any other American to in
culcate the heresy of secession, 1t is
not my purpose to do injustice to Sena.
tor Wade; he is, and I am not, respon.
sible for his opinions, and by his own
mouth he shall be vindicated or con.
demned. During the course of debate
in the Senate of the United States, while
speaking ofthe people of the Sonth, Mr..
Wade said:
81 am not one of those who would ask
them to continue in such Union. 1t
would be doing violence to the platform
of the party to which I belong. We
have adopted the old Declaration of In
dependence as the basis of our political
movements, which declares that any peo-
pie, when their Government ceases to
1
verted from the true purpose of Govern
ment as to oppress them, have right to
recur to fundamental principles, and, if
need be, to destroy the Government un-
der which they live, and to erect on its
ruins another more conducive to their
welfare. hold that they have this
right. I will not blame any people for
Exercising it whenever they think the
contingency has come. l certainly shall
be the advocate of that same doctrine
whenever l find that the principles of
this Government have become SO op-
pressive to the section to which I belong
that free people ought not longer to
endure it. You will not then find me
backward in being the advocate of dis
union; but that contingency never hav-
ing come have never yet opened my
mouth in opposition to the Union.''
= "You cannot forcibly hold men
in this Union, for the attempt to do so, it
seems to me, would subvert the first
principles of the Government under
which we live -Congressionaz Globe,
Thirty Fourth Congress, third session,
page %. s. .e9g * s5..l
Here, sir, is the doctrine of Davis and
of Calhoun boldly, will not say vaunt-
ingly; proclaimed by the Senator whom
it is now proposed to make President of
the United States, not by the will of the
people but by the action of Congress.
And now, Mr.. Chairman, as you pro-
pose to place an avowed advocate of
disunion' in the presidential chair, who,
let me ask, is the high criminal against
whom is hurled the burning invective of
gentlemen on the other. side of the
House2 Sir, let Mr.. Stanton reply:
WAR DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, March 3, 1865.
SIR: This Department has accepted
your resignation as Brigadier General
and Military Governor of Tennessee.
Permit me on this occasion to tender to
you the sincere thanks of this Depart
ment for your patriotic and able services
during the eventful period through
which you have exercised the highest
trust committed to your charge. In one
of the darkest hours of the great strug-
gle for national existence against rebel
lious foes, the Government called you
from the comparatively safe and easy
duties of civil life to place you in front
of the enemy, and in position of per-
sonal toll and danger perhaps more haz-
ardous than was encountered by any
other citizen or military officer of the |
United States. With patriotic prompt
ness you assumed the post, and main
tanned it under circumstances of unpar-
alleled trials. until recent events have
brought safety and deliverance to your
State and to the integrity of the consti-
tutional Union, for which you SO long
and SO gallantly periled all that is dear
to man on earth. That you may be
spared to enjoy the new honors and per-
form the high duties to which you have
been called by the people of the United
States, is the sincere wish of one who in
every official and personal relation has
found you worthy of the confidence of
the Government and the honor and es.
TEEN of your fellow citizens.
r8uta0Yo our obedient servant,
EDWIN M. STANTON.
His Excellency Andrew johnson, Vice /
L
And for the simple reason that Presi-
dent johnson concurred with Generals
Grant and Sherman, that the good of the
public service required that Secretary
Stanton should resign; and because
President johnson acted upon the ad-
vice Of General Sherman, and "contriv-
ed ulterior measures as by law he had
a right to do, to get rid of the person
who clung to Office with such remarka
Bile tenacity, it is proposed to depose the
President from the high position to
which he was elevated by the voice of
his countrymen. Sir, against this great
wrong, in the name of my constituents,
| appeal from this honorable House to
the country; l appeal from the politi-
clans to the people.
And now, Mr.. Chairman, out of defer
ence to the learned gentlemen of the
will briefly consider the
tenth article and the testimony, and
the only testimony offered, to sustain
the specifications against the President.
1t reads as follows:
ARTICLE x.
That said Andrew johnson, President
Of the United States, on the 22d day of
February, in the year of our Lord 1868,
at Washington, in the District of Co.
lumbia, in disregard Of the Constitution
and the laws of Congress duly enacted.
as COMMANDMENTS Chief of the Army of
the United States, did bring before him
self then and there William II. Emory,
q Major General by brevet in the Army
Of the United States, actually in COM
mand of the Department of Washington