Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-03-08
THE MISCHIEF OF PRESIDENTIAL.
IMPEACHMENT

IEou tue new 1eFk W OFlQ, March 4th.
The infamous precedent about to be set
is the first step towards the abolition of
Presidential elections. 1t is blow at the
right Of the people to select their Chief
Magistrate. If Congress can put out A
President for mere party reasons, on any
frivolous pretext they may choose TO hatch.
it is futile expenditure of effort for the
people to go through the agitation. every
four years, of Presidential election. An
opposition Congress may put out the elected
President, then the elected Vice President,
and fill the place with any creature of their
own they may choose to select. The peo-
pie will cease to attach any importance to
a Presidential election when they find that
instead of electing a President for four
years, they choose one who is to remain in
office only during the pleasure Of his po-
iitlcal opponents. Congress has already
established the precedent of getting a two
thirds majority against the President by
excluding his political supporters, and
with this device for keeping the REQ uisite
majority and the use TO which it is to be
turned, the road is paved for some other
form OF chief magistracy than an elected
President. This same inscriptions BODY
of partisaRs that intend to pat out Mr..
johnson for party reasons, will have the
counting of the electoral votes for his suc.
cessor; and it will require no greater au-
daeity than they are now exhibiting TO re-
| fuse 10 declare him elected if he should be
Democrat 1t will be no worse to keep
President elect out by a dishonest count
than TO put an elected President out by
dishonest accusation and a sham trial.
The President is certainly one of the
officers who come within the puryiew of
the impeaching power; but it must be
borne in mind that he is an elective officer.
| and the only elective officer Except the
Vice PresideDt) to whom that remedy APP
plies. With reference to him, impeach-
meat was meant to be method of correct
ing evils which could not be remedied by
Presidential election. 1t is a method
which applies only TO political errors or to
personal qualities which aremerely odious
but not criminal. If President merely
obstructs the policy of his political oppon-
ents, that is a case to be referred TO the
people, who, if they dislike his politics.
have remedy at the polls. Nor is i'm
peachment the proper remedy for particu-
lar acts of maladministration, SO long as
there are other constitutional meaps of cor
recting the evil. If the President differs
from Congress in regard to the constitu-
tionality of law, it is not a case for i'm
parchment, because the Constitution pro-
Vides a tribunal for adiudicating such
differences and settling all questions
that grow cut of them. Impeachment
is supplemental remedy to be used only
as last resort for the removal of great
evils which admit of no other cure. In
all cases where the Constitution has provi-
ded other remedies: resort to impeach-
ment ia an abuse of power. Impeachment
is the extreme medicine of the Constitution,
intended TO be used chiefly against nom
elective officers whom there is no other
means of displacing, and against the Pre-
sident only when the magnitude and ur-
gency of some great evil cannot safely
await the action Of the people in the Pre-
sldential election. AS none of the Presi-
dents subordinates are protected from i'm
parchment by his responsibility for their
conduct, he can, in most cases, be efectu-
ally checked by removing them; their i'm
peachability being meant by the Constitu-
ton to spare the necessity of impeachment
of the President-the elect of the people
except in cases of great moral turpitnde
seriously affecting the honor and interests
OF the country.