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
The Speaker pro tempore, (Mr. Blaine, in the chair.) The Chair sustains
the point of order.
Mr. Holman: I hope no gentleman will object to the completion of the
reading: it will only occupy the time I am entitled to.
Mr. Peters: It is doubtless very instructive, and so would a chapter
of the Bible be, but it has nothing to do with the question before the
House, and I insist upon the point of order.
The Speaker pro tempore. Up to this point the discussion has been
pertinent and germane to the question--very closely so--and the Chair is
compelled to rule, the question of order being raised, that this is not
germane or in order. The gentleman from Indiana will proceed in order.
Mr. Holman: I suppose, Mr. Speaker, the Constitution of the United
States would scarcely be in order. I will not ask to have it read.
The debate continued in the vein illustrated in the foregoing extracts,
from the morning of February 22, notwithstanding it was a National
Holiday, such was the haste of the impeachers, to the evening of the
24th, almost without interruption. It was at times illustrated by marked
ability, and on the Republican side by intense bitterness and partisan
malignity. A large number of the members of the House participated in
the debate.
Mr. Thaddeus Stevens then closed the debate in the following arraignment
of the President:
Now in defiance of this law, (the Office-Tenure Act) Andrew Johnson,
on the 21st day of February, 1868, issued his commission or letter of
authority to one Lorenzo Thomas, appointing him Secretary of War ad
interim. and commanded him to take possession of the Department of War
and to eject the incumbent. E M. Stanton, then in lawful possession
of said office. Here, if this act stood alone, would be an undeniable
official misdemeanor--not only a misdemeanor per se, but declared to be
so by the act itself, and the party made indictable and punishable in
a criminal proceeding. If Andrew Johnson escapes with bare removal
from office, if he be not FINED AND INCARCERATED IN THE PENITENTIARY
AFTERWARD UNDER CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS, he may thank the weakness or the
clemency of Congress and not his own innocence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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