The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1868-03-05

I o-NA-e II " MN eAAC pawn " q va -
was plain. He scorned the threats
which had been made upon this floor,
He feared no appeal to the people,
but eourted such an appeal. The gen.
tlemen had not read history if they
had not learned that in all contests
between an Executive and the Com
mons, the Representatives of the peo-
pie had triumphed in the end. That
great party whose patriotism. courage
fidelity and heroism, had carried the
country in triumph and glory through
the war, would not now fail in its
great mission. That party which over
came the undivided and compacted
strength Of all the rebels in arms,
sustained and supported by the SYM
pathy of two fifths ofall the voters OF
the States not in open rebellion,
would not now be overcome by a
band of mercenary camp-followers of
a corrupt and reasonable -administra-
tion. The time had now come when
the President should be promptly i'm
peaehed for his last great crime COM
mitted against the Constitution. His
longer continuance in Office was a
perpetual and enduring menace
against the peace and prosperity Of
the country. The whole official ca
reer of the President had been mark
ed by wicked disregard of all his OBJ
legations of public duty, and by de-
gree of .Perfdy, treaehery and turpi-
tude unheard of in the history
of the rulers Of a free people.
As mendacious as he was malignant,
he had attempted in his official action
to hurl down and destroy the bravestr
and noblest, and the best in the land.
His administration had been a con-
stant and prolonged warfare against
all the material interests of the
country. 1t had prostrated business
it had oppressed labor, destroyed
States, impaired the public credit, and
sapped the public morals; surrounded
by red-handed rebels, advised and
counseled by the worst men that ever
crawled like filthy reptiles at the foot
stool of power, he has used all the vast
authority Of the Government to pre-
vent a reunion of the States, the restor-
alton of the harmony, peace and hap
Piness of the country.
The loyal men Of the rebel States
have been brought to a condition,
under his administration, from the
contemplation of which, all mon recoil
with horror. Murder, rapine, incen-
diarism, robbery, and all the crimes,
stalk through the land, and every day
he remains in office adds to the long
listof victims of rebel vengeance,
cruelty and hate. With such Presi-
dent, nearly all the departments of
the Government had become demOral-
lied and corrupt, to an extent which
could find no parallel in the history
of any country, in any age.
The Attorney General, not satisfied
with being the medium, through
which so many mail robbers, counter
feiters and public plunderers have
been pardoned and turned loose upon
the country, has with sententious
and boastful audacity, proclaimed
that he will not vindicate the laws of
Congress.
Look at the Navy Department,
with its profigacy, robberies, and
prosecutions of the honest and best
naval Offices Of the country! The
administration of the Treasury De-
partment was characterized by most
appalling frauds, with countless mil
lions of revenue stolen to 60 into the
pockets ofthieves, partisans and plum
derers, or to make up a vast politi-
cal fund to demOTalize and corrupt
the people. The Interior Department,
with the land jobbing, and contracts
and corrupt extension of patents
The Post-ofice Department, arraigned
before the House by a committee of
the House, and the State Department,
arraigned before the rulers of the
earth for its failure to vindicate the
rights of the nation and Ofthe citizens
of the nation.
Confronted as we are this day by
this state of things, so threatening to
the national existence, and so des-
truCtive to all that's held dear and to
prosperity, where is the patriotic man
of any political organization, who
does not call upon Congress to sternly
do its whole duty, and purge this
Capitol of the crimes which now de-
file the nation ?
During the delivery of Mr.. Wash
burne's speech, the hour Of12 arrived,
when the session of Saturday termi-
mated, and the regular legislative ses-
sion for Monday commenced. Mr..
Woodward obtained the floor, refusing
to yield few minutes time to Mr..
Washburne to conclude his remarks,
because of ISLANDERS uttered by him
against the President, and proceeded
to address the House against the i'm
parchment resolution. He argued
that the resolution Of impeachment of
the President on the idea that Secre-
tary Stanton was within the prOtec-
ton ofthe Tenure -of-Office Law, was
what Fouche, the chief of the old
French police, would have called
"worse than a crime, a blunder."-
Whatever executive power the Gov
ernment possessed was vested in the
President, who was the sole trustee of
the people in that regard. In the ap-
pointment to Office and the treaty
making functions, a check was i'm
posed upon the President, but even
in this instance the power exercised
was the Presidents the concurrence
of the Senate was only a regulation
for the exercise of the power. 1t was
a mere advisory discretion, not an
executive power. The separateness
and completeness of this executive
power in the hands of the President
was a doctrine essential to the har-
mony of this system Of government,
and to the responsibility of the Presi-
dent to the people. If Congress med
died with it, Congress became a tres
passer, and its act an impertinent
nullity, and the President was not to
be impeached for disregarding it. He
quoted extracts from debate in the
first Congress, upon the Executive De-
partment, and argued that that debate
aaftIad this 0uegtjon absolutely. and