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
These and other like assurances were given of the widest reasonable
latitude in the reception of testimony in the trial then opening. There
was thus every reason to expect that Mr. Johnson would have a fair
trial. But no sooner had the Prosecution completed its examination of
witnesses, in which but seven interrogatories had been objected to of
the long list proffered by the Prosecution, than a different rule seemed
to have been established for the treatment of proffered testimony, and a
large mass of relevant and valuable testimony in behalf of the President
was ruled out on objection of the Prosecution, as inadmissible, and,
as a rule that, had very few exceptions, on partisan divisions of the
Senate.
Of course it will not be admitted, nor is it here charged, that these
refusals to hear testimony were because of any fear that the answers
would have any improper force or effect upon the Senate. Nor will it
signify to say that the President's attorneys could not have proved
what they offered to prove. They hail the right to an opportunity to
so prove, and the denial of that right and opportunity was not only
a denial of a manifest right of the attorneys, but especially in this
case, a more flagrant denial of the rights of the accused, and not
only that, but they amounted to an impugnment of the discretion of the
Senate.
It is conspicuous, too, that while the defense objected to but seven of
the interrogatories submitted by the Prosecution, and five of them were
permitted answer by the vote of the Senate; twenty-one of the proffers
of testimony by the defense were objected to by the prosecution and but
nine of them permitted answer: and that condition was aggravated by the
fact that the numerical strength of the majority party in the Senate was
sufficient to determine absolutely the disposition of every question,
and they could therefore afford to be strictly fair to the accused, and
by the further fact that the objections to testimony offered in behalf
of the defense were as three to one of the objections to testimony
offered in behalf of the prosecution.
These denials of testimony in behalf of the defense were unfortunate.
That practice lowered the dignity of the occasion and of the proceeding,
as they could but have given ground for criticism of partisan bias and a
vindictive judgment in case of successful impeachment. Most, if not
all these rejected interrogatories implied important information in
possession of the witnesses which the Senate had a right to, and which
the party offering had the right to have produced. Moreover, it was the
right and the duty of the Senate to know what the witness was presumed
to know, and then to judge, each Senator for himself, of the relevancy
of the testimony.
As stated, the principal averment against the President, was his alleged
violation of the Tenure-of-Office Act in the removal of Mr. Stanton from
the office of Secretary of War, presented in various phases throughout
the Articles of Impeachment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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