This is one of the last great battles with Slavery. Driven from these
legislative chambers, driven from the field of war, this monstrous
power has found refuge in the Executive Mansion, where, in utter
disregard of Constitution and law, it seeks to exercise its ancient
domineering sway. All this is very plain. Nobody can question it.
Andrew Johnson is the impersonation of the tyrannical Slave Power.
In him it lives again. He is lineal successor of John C. Calhoun and
Jefferson Davis, and he gathers about him the same supporters. Original
partisans of Slavery, North and South, habitual compromisers of great
principles, maligners of the Declaration of Independence, politicians
without heart, lawyers for whom a technicality is everything, and a
promiscuous company who at every stage of the battle have set their
faces against Equal Rights,--these are his allies. It is the old troop
of Slavery, with a few recruits, ready as of old for violence, cunning
in device, and heartless in quibble. With the President at their head,
they are now intrenched in the Executive Mansion.
Not to dislodge them is to leave the country a prey to a most hateful
tyranny. Especially is it to surrender the Unionists of the Rebel
States to violence and bloodshed. Not a month, not a week, not a day
should be lost. The safety of the Republic requires action at once.
Innocent men must be rescued from sacrifice.
I would not in this judgment depart from the moderation proper to the
occasion; but God forbid, that, when called to deal with so great an
offender, I should affect a coldness I cannot feel! Slavery has been
our worst enemy, assailing all, murdering our children, filling our
homes with mourning, darkening the land with tragedy; and now it rears
its crest anew, with Andrew Johnson as its representative. Through him
it assumes once more to rule and impose its cruel law. The enormity of
his conduct is aggravated by his barefaced treachery. He once declared
himself the Moses of the colored race. Behold him now the Pharaoh! With
such treachery in such a cause there can be no parley. Every sentiment,
every conviction, every vow against Slavery must be directed against
him. Pharaoh is at the bar of the Senate for judgment.
The formal accusation is founded on recent transgressions, enumerated
in articles of impeachment; but it is wrong to suppose that this is
the whole case. It is very wrong to try this impeachment merely on
these articles. It is unpardonable to higgle over words and phrases,
when, for more than two years, the tyrannical pretensions in evidence
before the Senate have been manifest, as I shall show, in terrible,
heart-rending consequences.