Year: 1868

The Impeachment Question.


The impeachment of President johnson is
and will be the central point of public atten-
ton until the articles presented against him,
by the House, charging him with high crimes
and misdemeanors in his Office, are tried and


determined in the Senate. The ten articles
which have been voed by the House all


relate to the one matter of the unlawful at


tempt of the President to depose Stanton,


the Secretary of war Though Gen. Butler


has prepared an eleventh article, charging


the President with criminslity in his dis


graceful conduct while swinging round the


circle in 1866. we do not think it probable


that Congress will entertain it. and thus


multiply issues with the President. We
think it apparent that Congress has no inten-


ton of mixing up extraneous questions which


will lengthen proceedings on the trial, with


the simple issue which the President has
forced upon it, in his contemptuous violation


of the Tenure of Office Act. The President
has attempted to introduce new principle
into public policy-that of public officer
being permitted to refuse, to recognize and
execute public law until the tribunals have
decided it to be constitutional. The danger
and delay to which the public service would
be exposed by the recognition Of such a
principle would be untold. and very hazard
Gus to the life of the Government itself


Should this new Johnsonian principle pre-
vail. it would be prudent, hereafter, in Con-
gress when passing laws, instead of enacting
that they shall take effect in SO many days
from and after" their passage to provide
that their acts shall become laws upon the
pleasure of the President of the United
States, and shall be operative after the Su-
preme Court has adjudged them constitu-
tional. Heretofore our Government has
been conducted upon the old idea, that the


first and highest duty of public officer was
to carry ont the law until he was restrained
by the law itself being repealed or pronounc-
ed by the proper tribunal to be unconstitu-
tional. If any serious inconvenience has re-
suited to individuals or to the public from
the faithful execution of the laws, it has
hitherto escaped notice. To Andy johnson
has been reserved the privilege and distinc-
ton of making the discovery that executive
officers may enforce or disregard public
law at their pleasure. The offices, the in
cumbents Of which compose the Presidents s
Cabinet, were created by Congress, and being
its creatures, Congress cnn limit. extend or
abolish those offices at pleasure. Congress.
| thus having complete control of the subjec,
may make the term for which the incumben,
holds of long or short duration. The man.
ner of appointment is the only point which
has been fixed by the Constitution. The
term for which the appointee holds may be
of fixed duration. or may be varying. from
the will of the President, to a term during
good behavior; as Congress by law may de-
termine. If hitherto, Congress has permitted
the President to remove Cabinet and other
officers at pleasure, it has been because the
practice Of such removals had grown up in
liz oOoCAiSC VI Gil loN Oil lnc ouDJCCt, ohO ~
evil of sufficient importance had resulted
therefrom to call for Congressional action.
| There is no legal reason why the President
should have any greater power to remove
his appointees at pleasure than that Govern
ors of States should have power to remove
Public Notaries in the same manner. A
| public Office is not the private property Of
the executive, to be bestowed or taken aw9y
as suits the executive caprice. unless the law
making power so permits. That Congress
has SO permitted gives no vested rights to
the President to such power. While the


unlimited power of removal, in the hands Of
wise and virtuous President may be ofgreat


utility to the public service, it is very easy


to see that the same power in the hands of an
Andrew Johnson may be converted into an
instrument of great danger to the country
| The policy involved in the questions of re-
| moval is one which Congress, and it alone


can lawfully determine. When, therefore
Congress passed the law fixing the term Of
Office, it gave expression to the settled con-
viction of the loyal people of the country,
that it was unsafe to allow corrupt execu-
tive to further corrupt the public service by
appointing traitors and unscrupu.ous men to
Office, and by holding over the heads of hon.


est men the threat of decapitation in case Of
refusal to follow him in his corrupt and
reasonable designs upon the constitutional
| prerogatives of Congress. The dealings Of
Congress with the President have been mos,
moaerate-if not wise, When he poured
upon that department ali the billingsgate ac-
quired in his wonderful political career
though members may have frowned-yet not
word or an act of reproof or reproach issued
from it. Not until it was known that he
intended to seize the War Department, in the
| interest of rebels and treason, did Congress
move. Then came the law regulating the
tenure of Office, which placed the War Office
through the meshes of the law. That act he
has doneI; and it now remains for Congress
to vindicate the majesty of the law. and
show to traitors and all the world that Office
in America means service of the people. in
obedience to the laws and not dictatorialism
After its passage of law which it deemed
necessary to save the country from the
usurpation of the President, Congress can
not refuse the issue which he has made by
his open and defiant violation of that law