June 3d, Mr. Sumner submitted the following Resolutions, which
were read and ordered to be printed.
Whereas a pretension has been put forth to the effect that the vote of
a Senator on an impeachment is so far different in character from his
vote on any other question that the people have no right to criticize
or consider it; and whereas such pretension, if not discountenanced,
is calculated to impair that freedom of judgment which belongs to
the people on all that is done by their representatives: Therefore,
in order to remove all doubts on this question, and to declare the
constitutional right of the people in cases of impeachment,--
1. _Resolved_, That, even assuming that the Senate is a Court in the
exercise of judicial power, Senators cannot claim that their votes are
exempt from the judgment of the people; that the Supreme Court, when it
has undertaken to act on questions essentially political in character,
has not escaped this judgment; that the decisions of this high tribunal
in support of Slavery have been openly condemned; that the memorable
utterance known as the Dred Scott decision was indignantly denounced
and repudiated, while the Chief Justice who pronounced it became a mark
for censure and rebuke; and that plainly the votes of Senators on an
impeachment cannot enjoy an immunity from popular judgment which has
been denied to the Supreme Court, with Taney as Chief Justice.
2. _Resolved_, That the Senate is not at any time a Court invested
with judicial power, but that it is always a Senate with specific
functions declared by the Constitution; that, according to express
words, “the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in
one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may
from time to time ordain and establish,” while it is further provided
that “the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments,”
thus positively making a distinction between the judicial power and
the power to try impeachments; that the Senate, on an impeachment,
does not exercise any portion of the judicial power, but another and
different power, exclusively delegated to the Senate, having for its
sole object removal from office and disqualification therefor; that,
by the terms of the Constitution, there may be, after conviction on
impeachment, a further trial and punishment “according to law,” thus
making a discrimination between a proceeding by impeachment and a
proceeding “according to law”; that the proceeding by impeachment is
not “according to law,” and is not attended by legal punishment, but
is of an opposite character, and from beginning to end political,
being instituted by a political body on account of political offences,
being conducted before another political body having political power
only, and ending in a judgment which is political only; and therefore
the vote of a Senator on impeachment, though different in form, is
not different in responsibility, from his vote on any other political
question; nor can any Senator, on such an occasion, claim immunity from
that just accountability which the representative at all times owes to
his constituents.
3. _Resolved_, That Senators in all that they do are under the constant
obligation of an oath, binding them to the strictest rectitude;
that on an impeachment they take a further oath, according to the
requirement of the Constitution, which says, Senators, when sitting
to try impeachment, “shall be on oath or affirmation”; that this
simple requirement was never intended to change the character of the
Senate as a political body, and cannot have any such operation; and
therefore Senators, whether before or after the supplementary oath,
are equally responsible to the people for their votes,--it being the
constitutional right of the people at all times to sit in judgment on
their representatives.