New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-03-13

that we adjourn until seven o'clock this
evening.
The Chief Justice: The motion will be
put for the longest time;
Senator Lynch: will call for the yeas
and nays.
The Chief Justice: The Secretary will
call the roll.
Senator Foute: would request that
managers and counsel for the defense,
would distinctly enunciate as they quote
from the law books.
The Chief Justice: Senators, the roll will
be called; those OF you in favor of taking
a recess will answer ave, those opposed
will say no.
The roll being called, the Senate refused
to take recess.
The motion to take recess of five min
utes was Withdrawn.
The Chief Justice: The counsel will
proceed with the argument.
MIR. Semmes: The next question to be
discussed is, for what offense can an Off
Ger be impeached? I admit the PROPOSE.
ton that no one but an officer is liable to be
impeached; therefore there will be no dis
cussiou upon that subject. The next ques-
ton is, for what he can be impeached.
Now, it is an interesting investigation to
trace, in the convention, that framed
the constitution of the United States,
the history of that clause, as it stands.
in that constitution, for the purpose of
seeing what phases t assumed as it pre-
crossed to its perfection, and as it was
finally adopted.
The first terms used, as reported to the
convention, were, g that the officer should
be impeached for malpractice or neglect of
duty" They were not satisfied with that.
At a subsequent stage of the proceedings of
the convention, it was modified to these
words: Treason, bribery, and corrup-
tion,' They were not satisfied with that,
because the word corruption was too large
and general, and because it conveyed no
precise idea. Therefore they desired to
change the language. In its next phase it
assumed this language Shall be i'm
peached for treason and bribery" alone,
leaving out corruption, leaving ont NAL
practice, leaving out neglect of duty, all
of which were general and unsatisfactory
terms. In its fourth and last stage, as at
present Incorporated in the constitution of
the United States, it is in these words :
"For treason, bribery, and other high
crimes and misdemeanors." Now you can
almost observe the transition through
which this clause passes. and OBJ
it. Malpractice and neglect were unde-
fined; treason and bribery were definite
enough, because the law defined what they
were. Corruption was underlined; they
struck it out, they then inserted merely
treason and bribery; that was not large
enough, and finally they inserted treason.
bribery, and other high crimes and mis-
demeanors. These terms having definite
Specification according to law, therefore,
they left out everything that might tend
to misconstruction, or leave too large a
latitude, or might give too much sway to
mere political influence and power, and
confined it to definite offenses, such as high
crimes, treason. bribery and misdemeanOr.
Now, under the constitution of this State
in order to understand what l am
now about to approach, and it
is very important in the elimi-
nation and calculation, what is rem
dered uncertain in the argument addressed
to you by the learned managers. You
must remember that Louisiana was never
province Of England; you must remem-
Der that Louisiana belonged to the French
and the Spaniards; that Louisiana was
therefore subject to the dominion of civil
law, and that what is called the common
aw of England never existed here, and
does not exist here to-day, except in so
far as it may have been incorporated in}o
our jurisprudence by special enactment
of the Legislature. Now, if you will
bear that in mind you will arrive at cor
rect determination of what is or is not i'm
peachable. In the common law States a
vast mass of otfense5 exist under the do
minion of the common law, the
common law being system of law
grown up from time immemorial,
out of ancient usages, embodied into sys-
TEN by Judges and amended by
statutes, and covers almost every kind Of
ofense which man can commit. Drunk
enness is an offense against common law;
indecency is an offense against common
law; almost everything which you can
imagine, anything which violates moral
ity, religion or public decency; anything
which violates propriety, a propriety
established by immemorlal usage, and not
an underlined propriety, according to the
Judgment of each individual; all that is
regulated by the common law, and wher
ever the common law prevails, in all the
States, of course man could be impeached
for any violation of the common law,
because it was an offense; because it was
wrong, and because the law had establish
ed it to be wrong long before he had COM
mitted the act-wrong centuries ago, &C.
cording to the usages OF those times. We
never had any such system in this State,
and what was the result? That when we
came to enact our criminal legislation, we
did it by statute There was clause in
the constitutions of 1912, 1915, 1852 and
1864. and there is similar clause in that
of 1868, inserted. though judiciously, be-
tween our system aud the common law,
that you should introduce into the juris-
prudence of Louisiana no general system
of law by general reference to that
system. 1t was aimed at the COM
mon law. Ia consequence you could
not enact the common law by gen.
eral reference to that system Of law,
but you would have to 60 to work as they
did in 1855, and enact each statute by
itself, declaring what the special law in
each one was, and consequ emily our
criminal law is all based upon special
enactments of the legislature, and the Su-
preme Court has decided that nothing is
an offense under the laws of Louisi-
ana except that which is defined by some
statute that is decided in Eighth Robin
sons Supreme Court, this State, page
273. Judge Billiard says: ~ admit that
this doctrine is one of the common law
which regards every act, contra bonos
naores, as indictable, and that in this State
no such mass of underlined offens es exists,