Assassination of Lincoln: a History of the Great Conspiracy: Trial of the Conspirators by a Military Commission, and a Review of the Trial of John H. SurrattHarris, T. M. (Thomas Mealey)
History
Assassination of Lincoln: a History of the Great Conspiracy: Trial of the Conspirators by a Military Commission, and a Review of the Trial of John H. Surratt
Harris, T. M. (Thomas Mealey)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Assassination; Surratt, John H. (John Harrison), 1844-1916
In Congress Mr. Bingham has had a distinguished career, marked by
important services to the country. In the XXXVIIth Congress he was
earnest and successful in advocating many important measures to promote
the vigorous prosecution of the war, which had just begun. Returning
to Congress in 1865, after an absence of two years, he at once took
a prominent position. Upon the formation of the joint committee on
Reconstruction, December 14th, 1865, he was appointed one of the nine
members on the part of the House. He was active in advocating the
great measures of Reconstruction, which were proposed and passed in
the XXXIXth and XLth Congresses. The House of Representatives having
resolved that Andrew Johnson should be impeached for "high crimes and
misdemeanors," Mr. Bingham was appointed on the committee to which was
intrusted the important duty of drawing up the Articles of Impeachment.
This work having been done to the satisfaction of the House, Mr.
Bingham was elected chairman of the managers to conduct the impeachment
of the President before the Senate.
On him devolved the duty of making the closing argument. His speech on
this occasion ranks among the greatest forensic efforts of any age. He
began the delivery of his argument on Monday, May 4th, and occupied the
attention of the Senate, and a vast auditory on the floor and in the
galleries, during three successive days. At the close of his argument,
the immense audience in the galleries, wrought up to the highest pitch
of enthusiasm, gave vent to such an unanimous and continued outburst
of applause as has never before been heard in the Capitol. Ladies and
gentlemen, who could not have been induced deliberately to trespass
on the decorum of the Senate, by whose courtesy they were admitted to
the galleries, overcome by their feelings, joined in the utterance
of applause, knowing that for so doing the Sergeant-at-arms would be
required to expel them from the galleries. The history of the country
records no similar tribute to the oratorial efforts of the ablest
advocates or statesmen. From so long and so well-sustained an argument,
it is impossible to select particular passages which would give an
adequate idea of the whole. The following historical argument for the
supremacy of the law will always be read with interest, whether as an
extract, or in its original setting:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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