Year: 1868

red against him; but majority o


the House of Representatives, not ye


sufficiently taught in the new school o


political morals, held the reasons insutii


cient, and rejected the articles. Th


President, who did the right thing, ha


bitually and always, at the wrong time


or omitted it till it became impractica


BILE or useless, suffered the Secretary o


War to remain in his Cabinet as one o


his constitutional advisers for more thar


a year after he knew him to be q traito


to his coHnsels, leagued with his enc


mics in their attempt to disparage ant


degrade him, or at least willing to stant


by in silence and see him unjustly dis


paraged and degraded, when q word O


truth from him would have placed the
conduct of the President beyond re


proach. IL proof of this, single ex


ample will suffice.


The Secretary of War had timely Of
fetal notice that a mob was assembling
in New Orleans, and o massacre wa:
threatened. There were troops enough
near the spot to preserve the peace. The
officer in command asked instructions


but the Secretary gave none, and with
held the information from the Presl'
dent until after the massacre had taken
place. A thousand public papers united
in accusing the President with know
ingly permitting, or even abetting the
massacre. The Secretary preserved a
profound silence. Here was one Sc
cret which he did not disclose, namely
that he, not the President, with full
knowledge of what was threatened,
stood by and suffered the massacre, when
three words from him, "arrest the riot
ers," sent by telegraph to the COM
manding officer, in reply to his dis.
patch asking for instructions, would
have averted the mischief. The publ
cation of the truth, which the plainest
principles of official duty and manly
honor required of him, would have dis
abused the public mind, and relieved
the President from the charge of a
crime of high official atrscity. The
Secretary made no explanatory publi-
cation, and the charge was suffered to
rest on the President. 1t was not be-
cause of diflidence or habitual tardi-
ness in coming before the public that
he failed in this. When General Sher-
man, after marching through the heart
of the Confederacy, captured Johnston
with the remnant of the Confederate
armies, and applied to the President for
instructions as to the terms OF capltula-
ton, a day was not suffered to pass
until Secretary Stanton prepared and
published O bulletin accusing the sue
cessful General of treachery, and con-
tanning a narrative charged with mere
fiction and falsehood. But he lot the
accusation against the President pass
unnoticed, and witnessed silently the
censure which it brought upon him.
This was perfdy; it adnits cf no excuse,
no extenuation; but, Notwithstanding
this, the President retained him in office.
But when, at last, owing to the pro-
mitigation of Cabinet secrets, which
could he traced to ne other source, his
longer continuance as a confidential adj
wiser became impossible, the hint was
taken, bill was introduced and passed
the House, which, if it had become a
law, would have enabled him to set the
President ut defiance; but it was so
amended in the Senate as to allow the
President to remove Cabinet otli-
Ger not selected by himself, and
whom he felt unsafe to trust. 1t was
declared by the leading members of the
Senate, and if remember well, general
ly assented to that the President ought
to retain the power in that class OF
cases, and the amendment was made for
the express purpose of leaving it in bis
D possession. This amendment of the
Office bill was the last act OF
fairness toward tho President in either
OF the the two Houses of Congress. The
new code ofpolitical morals which SEN
ator Morton declared himself studying
spread in the two Houses like the
rinderpest in the infected States of llOl.
land, until all the party, with few
rare and most honorable exceptions,
were touched with the contamination.


At last, after long endurance and de-
lay, the President, by formal official
act removed the Secretary of War, and
appointed one of the officers of the de-
partment dd interim, to take charge OF
the papers and business of the Office un-
til q successor should be regularly APP
pointed and qualified, and he, the next
day, nominated q successor to the Sen
ate. For this the House at once, by q
party vote, impeached him. In their
articles they declare as high crimes and
separately, the removal
of Secretary Stanton, the appointment
of an officer to perform the duties of
Secretary ad nterim-that is, to take
custody Of the office, the books, and pa
pers, and correspondence, until sue
cessor could be confirmed aud commits
stoned. They reverted to past acts, and
him for having replied with
bad temper to their taunts and insults.
They impeached him for having ex-
pressed an opinion unfavorablc to their
power of framing an amendment to tho
to bind ten States which
they would not suffer to be represented
while they framed it; they impsached
him for doubling the propriety of COM
pelling the ten States to accept the ar
ticle so prepared for them under pen
atty or under the pressure of military
force; and they impeached him for in
suiring of military officer what had
been done with q certain regiment OF
troops of the United States which Con-
gress had, by an act passed over
his veto, taken from under his command
and disposed of without his knowledge
each of these, and others too frivol-
ous to name, the House, by party
vote, found to be high crime OF high
they solemnly preferred
these articles to the Senate and devoted
mo nths of time, and speut more than o
million of the public money, in their
efforts to produce 4 conviction. l beg
YOU to refer to the articles, if You are
not ashamed to read them. The en-
bodied whole looks like what, in legal
parlance, used TO be called case OF
malicious prosecution, and there was
nothing in its progress to change its
but much to confirm it.


Before the passage Of the Tenure OF
Civil Office law no man doubted that
the President had right to remove the
Secretary Of War. The amendment to
that act, according to the expressed
opinion of many leading Senators, ac-
ouiesced in by the whole Senate, re-
served to him still that power. No man
yyho raads thu act can loubt it-so clear