And so, too, we must conclude, that, in the substitution of Lorenzo Thomas as Secretary of War _ad interim_, the offender violated not only the Acts of Congress for the supply of vacancies, but also the National Constitution. Knowing that he could not obtain possession of the office with the consent of the Senate, he sought to accomplish this purpose without that consent. Thus, under color of a statute, he practically set the National Constitution at defiance. Mark here the inconsistency. He violates the Tenure-of-Office Act, alleging that it is against the National Constitution, whose champion he professes to be, and then takes advantage of the Acts of Congress for the supply of vacancies to set aside this Constitution in one of its most important requirements; for all which he is justly charged with an impeachable offence. All this seems clear. Any other conclusion gives to the President the power under the National Constitution to vacate all national offices, and leaves the Republic the wretched victim of tyranny, with a ruler who is not even a constitutional monarch, but a king above all laws. It was solemnly alleged in the Charge against Charles the First of England, that, “being admitted King of England, and therein trusted with a limited power _to govern by and according to the laws of the land, and_ NOT OTHERWISE,” he nevertheless undertook “_to rule according to his will_, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people.”[207] These very words now declare the crime of Andrew Johnson. THE APOLOGIES. Here I might close; but the offender has found apologists, who plead his cause at the bar and in the Senate. The apologies are a strange compound, enlarging rather than diminishing the offences proved. There is, first, the Apology of Good Intentions; next, the Apology of making a case for the Supreme Court, being the Moot-Court Apology; and then, the Apology that the President may sit in judgment on the laws, and determine whether they shall be executed, which I call the Apology of Prerogative. Following these is a swarm of technicalities, devices, and quibbles, utterly unworthy of the Senate, and to be reprobated by all who love justice. THE APOLOGY OF GOOD INTENTIONS. I begin with the Apology of Good Intentions. In the light of all that has occurred, with the volume of history open before us, with the records of the Senate in our hands, and with the evidence at the bar not utterly forgotten, it is inconceivable that such an apology can be put forward. While making it, the apologists should be veiled, so that the derisive smile on their faces may not be observed by the Senate, to whose simplicity it is addressed. It is hard to treat this apology; but it belongs to the case, and therefore I deal with it.