History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, by the House of Representatives, and his trial by the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors in office, 1868Ross, Edmund G. (Edmund Gibson)
History
History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, by the House of Representatives, and his trial by the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors in office, 1868
Ross, Edmund G. (Edmund Gibson)
Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875 -- Impeachment
patriotism of which some of you who now sit in judgment on more than his
life, know nothing. I have, often thought that those who, dwelt at the
North, safely distant from the collisions and strifes of the war, knew
little of its actual, trying dangers. We who lived on the border know
more. Our horizon was always red with flame; and it sometimes burned so
near us that we could feel its heat upon the outstretched hand. But he
was wanted for a greater peril, and went into the very furnace of the
war, and there served his country long and well. Who of you have done
more? Not one. * * * It seems cruel, Senators, that he should be dragged
here as a criminal, or that any one who served his country and bore
himself well and bravely through that trying ordeal, should be condemned
upon miserable technicalities.
If he has committed any gross crime, shocking alike and indiscriminately
the entire public mind, then condemn him; but he has rendered services
to the country that entitle him to kind and respectful consideration.
He has precedents for everything he has done, and what excellent
precedents! The voices of the great dead come to us from the grave
sanctioning his course. All our past history approves it. How can you
single out this man, now in this condition of things, and brand him
before the world, put your brand of infamy upon him because he made an
ad interim appointment for a day, and possible may have made a mistake
in attempting to remove Stanton? I can at a glance put my eye on
Senators here who would not endure the position he occupied. You do not
think it is right yourselves. You framed this civil tenure law to give
each President his own Cabinet, and yet his whole crime is that he wants
harmony and peace in his.
Senators, I will not go on. There is a great deal that is crowding on my
tongue for utterance, but it is not from my head; it is rather from my
heart; and it would be but a repetition of the vain things 1 have been
saying the past half hour But I do hope you will not drive the President
out and take possession of his office. I hope this, not merely as
counsel for Andrew Johnson, for Andrew Johnson's administration is to me
but as a moment, and himself as nothing in comparison with the possible
consequences of such an act. No good can come of it, Senators, and how
much will the heart of the nation be refreshed if at last the Senate
of the United States can, in its judgment upon this case, maintain its
ancient dignity and high character in the midst of storms, and passion,
and strife.
A somewhat startling incident, which for the moment threatened
unpleasant results, occurred in the course of the trial. In his opening
speech for the prosecution, Mr. Manager Boutwell used this language,
speaking of the President:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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