I know that the President sometimes quotes the Constitution, and professes to carry out its behests. But this pretension is of little value. A French historian, whose fame as writer is eclipsed by his greater fame as orator, who has held important posts, and now in advancing years is still eminent in public life, has used words which aptly characterize an attempt like that of the President. I quote from the History of M. Thiers, while describing what is known as the Revolution of the 18th Brumaire. “When any one wishes to make a revolution, it is always necessary to disguise the illegal as much as possible,--to use the terms of a Constitution in order to destroy it, and the members of a Government in order to overturn it.”[79] In this spirit the President has acted. He has bent Constitution, laws, and men to his arbitrary will, and has even invoked the Declaration of Independence for the overthrow of those Equal Rights it so grandly proclaims. In holding up Andrew Johnson to judgment, I do not dwell on his open exposure of himself in a condition of intoxication, while taking the oath of office,--nor do I dwell on the maudlin speeches by which he has degraded the country as it was never degraded before,--nor do I hearken to any reports of pardons sold, or of personal corruption. This is not the case against him, as I deem it my duty to present it. These things are bad, very bad; but they might not, in the opinion of some Senators, justify us on the present occasion. In other words, they might not be a sufficient reason for the amendment which I have moved.