The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-05-08
BELKNAP's IMPEACHMENT.
The Question of Jurisdiction Still under
Discussion,

&uCsAOh VI SIlu uuUtf
Discussion.
WASHINGTON, May SIN the impeachment
trial today Mr. Conkling submitted the follow
ing questions to the board of managers:
First-lf two persons guilty of crime in office
cease to be officers at the same time, one by re-
moval and the other by resignation, is one
rather than the other subject to impeachment
afterwards? If distinction between the two
cases exists please stateit.
Seconds private citizen liable to impeach-
ment under the Constitution of the United
States? Does his having previously held an
citizens? Please trace the distinction to the
clause of the Constitution, or to the principle
on which it is founedd.
Mr.. Mitchell submitted the following ques-
tons: The Constitution provides that when the
President of the United States is tried and inn
peached, the Chief Justice shall preside. Sup
pose late President were mpeached for high
crimes and misdemeanors committed while
President and presented at the bar of the Sem
ate for trial, who would preside then, the Chief
Justice or President of the Senate?
Manager Knott was unable to conclude his
argument on account of indisposition, and
leave was granted him to conclude on Monday.
Manager jerks then read lengthy argument
to the effect that the Senate has jurisdiction in
the case. Recess
Upon reassembling Mr. Hoar said the House
demanded that w. w. Beknap for high crimes
and misdemeanors be forever disqualified from
holding or enjoying any Office of honor, trust or
profit under the United States For the pur-
pose OF the present argument the guilt of de-
PENDANT was admitted. He met the demand by
denial of the authority of the House to inn
peach, and the authority of the Senate to try
him under whatever circumstances, that the
party accused had laid down his office. The
issue so made up was simple and narrow one,
Two or three sentences of the Constitution and
two or three American presidents made up ev-
erything that spoke to the Senate with abso-
lutte authority on this question The attempt
now was to abridge by much more than one-half
the compass of the most august judicial pro-
ceeding AMI the power of the most august Judi
cal tribunal known to our government. The
trainers of the Constitution intended impeacb-
ment to be protection to people against the
usurpation of the executive power and against
official corruption. They expressly named trea.
son and bribery as the two crimes specially
aimed at Which of the two would have been
accounted the worst offence in the minds of
those great statesmen, they had left nothing on
record to show, and he would not undertake to
decide, but he believed it might have been said
of them as it Was once of the younger Pitt
that though be might in moment of tempta
ton have destroyed his country he would new
er have stopped to pilfer from her.
Mr.. Hoar then traced the history of the i'm
parchment, both in England and in this coun-
try, and argued that it was clear proof of the
value OF impeachment that it had been adopted
in all the state constitutions. In fact the Con-
stitution of the United States had probably tax
en- the Constitution of Virginia as its model in
the framing of that provision, and the Virginia
Constitution expressly provided that Cover
nor could be impeached after he had left Office.
Jurisdiction in impeachment extended only to
official trusts. The jurisdiction of the Senate
was national one and extended only to nation
al official trusts 1t was not likely, therefore,
that many of the forty millions of inhabitants
of the United States alluded to by the other
side would be presented to the bar of the Sem
ate. The Senate had now to decide upon
great right of the American people and not the
fate of an individual culprit. Corruption in
legislator, whether Senator or Representative.
was inexpressibly base and infamous, and in
Judge odious and degrading. But it was not
dangerous as corruption in the head of great
department for all those officers were constant
" subject to the jealous gaze of the people,
But even among heads of departments corrup-
ton in the Secretary of War was unexception-
ally Infamous for he stood at the head Of one
of the two services of the government whose
ruling principle was honor. The army and
navy were the spotless lilies of the national
service
Mr.. Hoar then read from report presented
to Mr.. Belknap when Secretary of War on the
West Point Military Academy, signed 6y j. W
Stevenson and John Sherman, in which ''a
high regard for truth and a feeling of individ-
ual responsibility to God," were named as
among the chief qualities sought to be develop
ed in the character Of the cadets, and said, but
what influence have the precepts of their teach
ers upon the cadets when they see at the head
OF that branch of the government which stands
to them IN loco PARENTS, man whose hands
were filled with brides, the taking of which
was practice inseparably connected with
falsehood and deceit. There were four sources
from which we could get light on this question
of impeachment. These ware the debates and
journals of 1887, the opinion of the tribunals
or writers of authority, the argument derived
from the language of the Constitution, and the
argument to be derived from consideration of
the great but public objects to be accomplish
ed.
Mr.. Hoar continued his argument at length,
citing different cases and presidents. He con-
cluded at o'clock.
Adjourned to Monday
WASHINGTON, May 7.-Arguments on the
question of jurisdiction will lie brought u
close tomorrow, though it is not probable that
a decision will be made till after the return Of
Congress from Philadelphia. The Senate will
meet at II o'clock tomorrow and the entire day
will be consumed by Mr.. Knott and Judge
Black.