_Speaker of the House of Representatives_.
Attest:
EDWARD McPHERSON,
_Clerk of the House of Representatives_.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES, _March 3, 1868_.
The following additional articles of impeachment were agreed to, viz:
ART. X. That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States,
unmindful of the high duties of his office and the dignity and
proprieties thereof, and of the harmony and courtesies which ought to
exist and be maintained between the executive and legislative branches
of the Government of the United States, designing and intending to
set aside the rightful authority and powers of Congress, did attempt
to bring into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the
Congress of the United States and the several branches thereof, to
impair and destroy the regard and respect of all the good people of
the United States for the Congress and legislative power thereof (which
all officers of the Government ought inviolably to preserve and
maintain), and to excite the odium and resentment of all the good
people of the United States against Congress and the laws by it duly and
constitutionally enacted; and, in pursuance of his design and intent,
openly and publicly, and before divers assemblages of the citizens of
the United States, convened in divers parts thereof to meet and receive
said Andrew Johnson as the Chief Magistrate of the United States, did,
on the 18th day of August, A.D. 1866, and on divers other days and
times, as well before as afterwards, make and deliver with a loud voice
certain intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues, and did
therein utter loud threats and bitter menaces, as well against Congress
as the laws of the United States, duly enacted thereby, amid the cries,
jeers, and laughter of the multitudes then assembled and in hearing,
which are set forth in the several specifications hereinafter written
in substance and effect; that is to say:
_Specification first_.--In this, that at Washington, in the District of
Columbia, in the Executive Mansion, to a committee of citizens who
called upon the President of the United States, speaking of and
concerning the Congress of the United States, said Andrew Johnson,
President of the United States, heretofore, to wit, on the 18th day of
August, A.D. 1866, did in a loud voice declare in substance and effect,
among other things; that is to say:
So far as the executive department of the Government is concerned, the
effort has been made to restore the Union, to heal the breach, to pour
oil into the wounds which were consequent upon the struggle, and (to
speak in common phrase) to prepare, as the learned and wise physician
would, a plaster healing in character and coextensive with the wound.
We thought and we think that we had partially succeeded; but as the work
progresses, as reconstruction seemed to be taking place and the country
was becoming reunited, we found a disturbing and marring element
opposing us. In alluding to that element I shall go no further than your
convention and the distinguished gentleman who has delivered to me the
report of its proceedings. I shall make no reference to it that I do not
believe the time and the occasion justify.
We have witnessed in one department of the Government every endeavor
to prevent the restoration of peace, harmony, and union. We have seen
hanging upon the verge of the Government, as it were, a body called, or
which assumes to be, the Congress of the United States, while in fact it
is a Congress of only a part of the States. We have seen this Congress
pretend to be for the Union, when its every step and act tended to
perpetuate disunion and make a disruption of the States inevitable.
* * * We have seen Congress gradually encroach, step by step, upon
constitutional rights, and violate, day after day and month after month,
fundamental principles of the Government. We have seen a Congress that
seemed to forget that there was a limit to the sphere and scope of
legislation. We have seen a Congress in a minority assume to exercise
power which, allowed to be consummated, would result in despotism or
monarchy itself.
_Specification second_.--In this, that at Cleveland, in the State
of Ohio, heretofore, to wit, on the 3d day of September, A.D. 1866,
before a public assemblage of citizens and others, said Andrew Johnson,
President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the Congress
of the United States, did in a loud voice declare in substance and
effect, among other things; that is to say:
I will tell you what I did do. I called upon your Congress that is
trying to break up the Government.
In conclusion, besides that, Congress had taken much pains to poison
their constituents against him. But what had Congress done? Have they
done anything to restore the Union of these States? No. On the contrary,
they have done everything to prevent it. And because he stood now where
he did when the rebellion commenced, he had been denounced as a traitor.
Who had run greater risks or made greater sacrifices than himself? But
Congress, factious and domineering, had undertaken to poison the minds
of the American people.
_Specification third_.--In this, that at St. Louis, in the State of
Missouri, heretofore, to wit, on the 8th day of September, A.D. 1866,
before a public assemblage of citizens and others, said Andrew Johnson,
President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the Congress
of the United States, did in a loud voice declare in substance and
effect, among other things; that is to say:
Go on. Perhaps if you had a word or two on the subject of New Orleans
you might understand more about it than you do. And if you will go
back--if you will go back and ascertain the cause of the riot at New
Orleans, perhaps you will not be so prompt in calling out "New Orleans."
If you will take up the riot at New Orleans and trace it back to its
source or its immediate cause, you will find out who was responsible
for the blood that was shed there. If you will take up the riot at New
Orleans and trace it back to the Radical Congress, you will find that
the riot at New Orleans was substantially planned. If you will take up
the proceedings in their caucuses, you will understand that they there
knew that a convention was to be called which was extinct by its power
having expired; that it was said that the intention was that a new
government was to be organized, and on the organization of that
government the intention was to enfranchise one portion of the
population, called the colored population, who had just been
emancipated, and at the same time disfranchise white men. When you
design to talk about New Orleans, you ought to understand what you are
talking about. When you read the speeches that were made and take up
the facts on the Friday and Saturday before that convention sat, you
will there find that speeches were made, incendiary in their character,
exciting that portion of the population--the black population--to arm
themselves and prepare for the shedding of blood. You will also find
that that convention did assemble, in violation of law, and the
intention of that convention was to supersede the reorganized
authorities in the State government of Louisiana, which had been
recognized by the Government of the United States; and every man engaged
in that rebellion in that convention, with the intention of superseding
and upturning the civil government which had been recognized by the
Government of the United States, I say that he was a traitor to the
Constitution of the United States; and hence you find that another
rebellion was commenced, _having its origin in the Radical Congress_.
* * * * *
So much for the New Orleans riot. And there was the cause and the origin
of the blood that was shed; and every drop of blood that was shed is
upon their skirts, and they are responsible for it. I could test this
thing a little closer, but will not do it here to-night. But when you
talk about the causes and consequences that resulted from proceedings
of that kind, perhaps, as I have been introduced here, and you have
provoked questions of this kind--though it does not provoke me--I will
tell you a few wholesome things that have been done by this Radical
Congress in connection with New Orleans and the extension of the
elective franchise.
I know that I have been traduced and abused. I know it has come in
advance of me, here as elsewhere, that I have attempted to exercise an
arbitrary power in resisting laws that were intended to be forced upon
the Government; that I had exercised that power; that I had abandoned
the party that elected me, and that I was a traitor, because I exercised
the veto power in attempting and did arrest for a time a bill that was
called a "Freedmen's Bureau" bill; yes, that I was a traitor. And I have
been traduced, I have been slandered, I have been maligned, I have been
called Judas Iscariot and all that. Now, my countrymen, here to-night,
it is very easy to indulge in epithets; it is easy to call a man a Judas
and cry out "traitor;" but when he is called upon to give arguments and
facts he is very often found wanting. Judas Iscariot--Judas. There was
a Judas, and he was one of the twelve apostles. Oh, yes; the twelve
apostles had a Christ. The twelve apostles had a Christ, and he never
could have had a Judas unless he had had twelve apostles. If I have
played the Judas, who has been my Christ that I have played the Judas
with? Was it Thad. Stevens? Was it Wendell Phillips? Was it Charles
Sumner? These are the men that stop and compare themselves with the
Savior, and everybody that differs with them in opinion, and to try
to stay and arrest their diabolical and nefarious policy, is to be
denounced as a Judas.
* * * * *
Well, let me say to you, if you will stand by me in this action, if you
will stand by me in trying to give the people a fair chance--soldiers
and citizens--to participate in these offices, God being willing I will
kick them out. I will kick them out just as fast as I can.
Let me say to you in concluding that what I have said I intended to say.
I was not provoked into this, and I care not for their menaces, the
taunts and the jeers. I care not for threats. I do not intend to be
bullied by my enemies nor overawed by my friends. But, God willing, with
your help I will veto their measures whenever any of them come to me.
which said utterances, declarations, threats, and harangues, highly
censurable in any, are peculiarly indecent and unbecoming in the Chief
Magistrate of the United States, by means whereof said Andrew Johnson
has brought the high office of the President of the United States into
contempt, ridicule, and disgrace, to the great scandal of all good
citizens; whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States,
did commit and was then and there guilty of a high misdemeanor in
office.
ART. XI. That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States,
unmindful of the high duties of his office and of his oath of office,
and in disregard of the Constitution and laws of the United States, did
heretofore, to wit, on the 18th day of August, A.D. 1866, at the city of
Washington, in the District of Columbia, by public speech, declare and
affirm in substance that the Thirty-ninth Congress of the United States
was not a Congress of the United States authorized by the Constitution
to exercise legislative power under the same, but, on the contrary, was
a Congress of only part of the States; thereby denying and intending to
deny that the legislation of said Congress was valid or obligatory upon
him, the said Andrew Johnson, except in so far as he saw fit to approve
the same, and also thereby denying and intending to deny the power of
the said Thirty-ninth Congress to propose amendments to the Constitution
of the United States; and in pursuance of said declaration the said
Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, afterwards, to wit,
on the 21st day of February, A.D. 1868, at the city of Washington,
in the District of Columbia, did unlawfully, and in disregard of the
requirement of the Constitution that he should take care that the laws
be faithfully executed, attempt to prevent the execution of an act
entitled "An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed
March 2, 1867, by unlawfully devising and contriving, and attempting to
devise and contrive, means by which he should prevent Edwin M. Stanton
from forthwith resuming the functions of the office of Secretary for the
Department of War, notwithstanding the refusal of the Senate to concur
in the suspension theretofore made by said Andrew Johnson of said Edwin
M. Stanton from said office of Secretary for the Department of War, and
also by further unlawfully devising and contriving, and attempting to
devise and contrive, means then and there to prevent the execution of
an act entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of the
Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1868 and for other purposes,"
approved March 2, 1867, and also to prevent the execution of an act
entitled "An act to provide for the more efficient government of the
rebel States," passed March 2, 1867, whereby the said Andrew Johnson,
President of the United States, did then, to wit, on the 21st day of
February, A.D. 1868, at the city of Washington, commit and was guilty
of a high misdemeanor in office.