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
An analysis of the Eleventh, Article shows that it comprised four
distinct counts, or accusations.
First--That Mr. Johnson had said that the Thirty-Ninth Congress was
not a Congress of the United States, but a Congress of only part of
the States, and therefore had no power to propose amendments the
Constitution.
The latter clause of this accusation was the only portion of the first
count that received any consideration during the trial, and the only
testimony brought in its support was the Parsons-Johnson telegraphic
correspondence set out in Interrogatory No. 5.
In that dispatch, referring to then pending Constitutional amendment
(the 14th) Mr. Johnson referred to Congress as "a set of individuals."
Mr. Manager Boutwell declared this expression to be "the gist of the
offense of this particular telegraphic dispatch."
Counsel for defense objected to this testimony, but it was received by a
vote of yeas twenty-seven, nays seventeen.
As the Fourteenth Amendment was not declared adopted or a part of
the Constitution for more than a year after the transmission of that
dispatch, and as the Constitution of the United States prohibits
any abridgment of the freedom of speech, and as this remark was
unaccompanied by any act in violation of law, it is difficult to see
how it could be construed into an impeachable offense. Moreover, saying
nothing of the good taste or propriety of that dispatch, Mr. Johnson was
opposed to the proposed amendment, and had the same right to oppose it,
or to characterize it or the members of Congress favoring it, as had any
private citizen, or as had the members of Congress to characterize his
action in the premises, without being called to account therefor.
The second count of that article was:
Violation of the Tenure-of-Office Act of March 2nd, 1867, in seeking to
prevent the resumption by Mr. Stanton of the office of Secretary of War.
This clause had been very effectually disposed of by Messrs. Sherman
and Howe several days before the vote was taken on the Eleventh Article,
when they pointed out the fact that the language cage of the first
section of the Tenure-of-Office Act clearly excepted, and was intended
by the Senate, to except Mr. Stanton and all other persons then in Mr.
Johnson's Cabinet who had been originally appointed by Mr. Lincoln
and were still holding over under Mr. Johnson without having been
recommissioned by him; and that Mr. Johnson had therefore the legal
right and power to remove them at his pleasure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account