Year: 1868




President has the right, judiciafly
to construe that Constitution for
himself, and judicially to decide-for
himself the validity of your laws,
and to plead in justification at your
bar, that his only purpose in thus
violating the Constitution and laws
is to test the validity of the laws,
and ascertain the construction of
the Constitution by his.ow1l motion
in, the Courts of justice, and thereby
to suspend this proceeding. I ask
you, Senators, how, long men would
deliberate upon the question wheth<
er private citizen arraigned at the
bar ofsone of your tribunals Of JUS
tice for criminal violation Of the
law, would be permitted to inter-
pose as a plea, in justification of his
criminal act, that his only, purpose
was to interpret the Constitution
and laws for himself; that he viola
ted the law in the exercise ofhis Pc
rogative to test its validity hereafter,
at such day as might suit his own
convenience, in the. courts of justice.


Surely, Senator'S, it is as compe-
tent for a private citizen to inter-
pose such justification in answer
to crime, in one of your tribunals
Of justice, as it is for the President
of the United States to interpose it,
for the simple reason that the Con-
stitution is no respector of persons,
and vests neither in the President
nor in the private citizen the Judi
cial power. Pardon me, Senators,
for saying it, speak it in no of
fenslve spirit; I speak from a sense
OF duty F; l I-utter but my own con-
viction, and desire to place it on
record, that for the Senate to sus-
tain any. such plea would, in my
Judgment, be a gross violation Of
an already violated Constitution and
laws Of a free people. Can it be,
that by reason of his great office,
the President ssto~be protected in
his high crimes and misdemeanors,
violative alike of his oath, the, Con-
stitution, and Of the express letter
Of your written law enacted by the
Legislative Department of the Gov
ernment. ,aei zJl 5aA. < Ea,sE.a


Senators,I have said, perhaps,
more than ought to have said I
have said mole E., perhaps, than there
was occasion to say; l know that T
stand in the presence of men illus
trious in our country's history; I
know that I stand in the presence
Of men who for long years have been
in the nations councils; I know
that I stand in the presence of men
who may, in some sense, be called
to day living fathers of the Repub-
lie. [ ask you, Senators, to con-
slider that [ speak before you this
day in behalf of the violated law of
the people who commission me; I
ask you to remember that I speak
this day under the obligations
of my oath I ask you to consider
that I am not insensible to the sig
nifcance of those words, of which
mention was made by the learned
counsel from New York-justice,
duty, law, oath; I ask you, Sena-
tors to consider that ] stand this
day pleading for the violated maj
esty Of the law by the graves of
half a million of. our murdered he
i roic patriots who made death beau
tiful by sacrifice of themselves for
their country's Constitution and
laws, and by their sublime example
taught us that all must obey the
law, that none are above the Law,
/ that no man lives for himself alone,
but each for all; that some must die
that the State may live; that the
: citizens is at the best but for a day,
while the Commonwealth is for al
time, and that no position however
high can be permitted to shelter
crime to the peril of the Republic.
1t only remains for me, Senators,
TO thank you for the honor you
have done me by your kind atten-
ton, and to demand, in the name Of
the House Of Representatives, and
of all the people Of the United
States, judgment against the accus-
ed for the high crimes and misde-
peanors in office whereof he stands
charged, and of which, before God
and man, he is clearly guilty.