Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-04-03
Resignations.

Inc telegraphc report or the proceed
ings before the Tweed investigating
committee, appointed by the Legislature
of New York, taken in connection with
recent acts in other places, suggests
grave defect in our legislative system.
Tweed, through his counsel, SAID he was
ready to resign, and intimated that, if it
was necessary to stop the investigation
he would resign. After all the time
spent and the expense incurred by the
UniCed States Senate in investigating the
election of Caldwell to the Senate from
Kansas, final action was prevented by
his resignation. A public officer is i'm
peached for corruption, or malfeasance
in Office the testimony is ample to con-
vict, but all proceedings are stopped by
a resignation. designations of this char
acter are of frequent occurrence. The
effect is bad in several respects. In cases
like Tweed's, the transactions are of
such a nature that legislative invcstiga-
tions must cease upon resignation. The
nature of trials in courts, governed, as
they necessarily must be, by the strict
rules of law, prevent the disclosure of
facts and circumstances important to be
known for the safety and well-5eing of
the community. The court is confined
to a direct issue between the litigants,
while the ADMINISTRATIONS of legislative and
congressional committees take a wider
range and in their developments may,
and ordinarily do, suggest legislation
which tends to the protection and i'm
mediate benefit of the community. The
resignation of Caldwell, at the time
when It was made, left the question of
his guilt or innocence undetermined, eX-
cept as a mere matter of opinion, and
with no mode provided for its settle
ment. All legislative bodies are govern
ed by rules and precedents, and yet res
ignations, at particular junctures, pre-
vent the forming of precedcnts. Cald-
wells resignation left the question open
and unsettled whether the Senate, under
the constitution, had the power to de-
clare a seat, procured by bribery, va
cant. The same trouble was expert
enced in the Credit Mobilier debate. 1t
was found impossible to determine what
had been the opinion of former Con-
gresses After lengthy and learned de-
bates, involving the question of the
power of Congress to deal with amember
FOR scts committed before his election,
and in which both sides were urged with
learning and pertinacity, 1t was found
that the accused member had invariably
prevented the forming of precedent by
resigning. 1t probably would not be
right or expedient to prohibit, by law,
designations of public officers and mem
bers of legislative bodies. Circumstances
do occur when it is right, expedient, as
well as absolutely necessary, to exercise
tse right of resignation. Could not Con-
gress and State Legislatures, neverthe-
less, acquire little wisdom from the or
binary rules of nearly every voluntary
association in the country? This defect
and difficulty could be obviated, it seems
to us, by the passage of law by Con-
gress and the several Stares, prohibiting
an incumbent from resigning an fficial
station while charges were pending
against him, or during the time his acts
were undergoing legislative or congress
sional investigation. There certainly
could be no harm in such course. and
much good might result.