The Grand Inquest of the nation, after sleeping on so many enormities,
was awakened by this open defiance. The gauntlet was flung into its
very chamber, and there it lay on the floor. The President, who had
already claimed everything for the Executive with impunity, now rushed
into conflict with Congress on the very ground selected in advance by
the latter. The field was narrow, but sufficient. There was but one
thing for the House of Representatives to do. Andrew Johnson must be
impeached, or the Tenure-of-Office Act would become a dead letter,
while his tyranny would receive a letter of license, and impeachment as
a remedy for wrong-doing would be blotted from the Constitution.
Accordingly it was resolved that the offender, whose crimes had so long
escaped judgment, should be impeached. Once entered upon this work,
the House of Representatives, after setting forth the removal of Mr.
Stanton and the appointment of General Thomas in violation of law and
Constitution, proceeded further to charge him in different forms with
conspiracy wrongfully to obtain possession of the War Department; also
with attempt to corrupt General Emory, and induce him to violate an
Act of Congress; also with scandalous speeches, such as no President
could be justified in making; concluding with a general Article setting
forth attempts on his part to prevent the execution of certain Acts of
Congress.
Such is a simple narrative, which brings us to the Articles of
Impeachment. Nothing I have said thus far is superfluous; for it shows
the origin of this proceeding, and illustrates its moving cause. The
Articles themselves are narrow, if not technical; but they are filled
and broadened by the transgressions of the past, all of which enter
into the present offences. The whole is an unbroken series, with
a common life. As well separate the Siamese twins as separate the
offences charged from that succession of antecedent crimes with which
they are linked, any one of which is enough for judgment. The present
springs from the past, and can be truly seen only in its light, which,
in this case, is nothing less than “darkness visible.”