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
Resolved, 1st. That it is the highest duty of every American citizen to
maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and the
paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States;
and that laying aside ALL DIFFERENCES OF POLITICAL OPINION, we pledge
ourselves as Union men, animated by a common sentiment and aiming at a
common object, to do everything in our power to aid the Government
in quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging against its
authority, and in bringing to the punishment due to their crimes the
rebels and traitors arrayed against it.
2nd. That we approve the determination of the Government of the United
States not to compromise with Rebels, or to offer them any terms of
peace, except such as may be based upon an unconditional surrender
of their hostility and a return to their just allegiance to the
Constitution and laws of the United States, and that we call upon the
Government to maintain their position, and to prosecute the war with the
utmost possible vigor to the complete suppression of the Rebellion, in
full reliance upon the self-sacrificing patriotism, the heroic valor
and the undying devotion of the American people to their country and its
free institutions.
3rd. That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the strength, of
this Rebellion, and as it must be, always and everywhere, hostile to
the principles of Republican Government, justice and the National safety
demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil of the Republic;
and that, while we uphold and maintain the acts and proclamation by
which the Government in its own defense, has aimed a death blow at this
gigantic evil, we are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to
the Constitution, to be made by the people in conformity with its
provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of
slavery within the limits or jurisdiction of the United States.
So there seems to be good ground for saying that this was in no sense a
partisan Convention, but, on the contrary, that it was a Convention of
the loyal people of the Northern and Border States, of all parties, who
were ready to lay aside party creeds and partisan considerations, the
better to make common cause for the preservation of the Union.
Before the war, Mr. Johnson had been a Democratic Senator from
Tennessee, and during the war, a gentleman of great influence in support
of the Union cause. So pronounced and effective had been his loyalty
that Mr. Lincoln appointed him a Brigadier General and Military Governor
of Tennessee, to accept which he resigned his seat in the Senate, and so
judicious and successful had been his administration of that office in
behalf of the Union cause and of Union men, that Tennessee was the first
of the revolted States to be readmitted to representation in Congress
after the close of the war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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