SPEECHES IN THE SENATE, ON AN AMENDMENT TO THE TENURE OF OFFICE BILL,
JANUARY 15, 17, AND 18, 1867.
This session of Congress was occupied by efforts to restrain
and limit the appointing power of the President. The
differences between the President and Congress increased daily.
Among measures considered by Congress was a bill to regulate
the tenure of offices, known as the Tenure of Office Bill.
January 15th, Mr. Sumner moved to amend this bill by adding a
new section:--
“_And be it further enacted_, That all officers or agents,
except clerks of Departments, now appointed by the
President or by the head of any Department, whose salary
or compensation, derived from fees or otherwise, exceeds
one thousand dollars annually, shall be nominated by the
President and appointed by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate; and the term of all such officers or agents
who have been appointed since the first day of July, 1866,
either by the President or by the head of a Department,
without the advice and consent of the Senate, shall expire
on the last day of February, 1867.”
Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, who reported the pending bill, opposed
the amendment. Mr. Sumner followed.
MR. PRESIDENT,--The proposition I offer now I moved last week on
another bill, in a slightly different form, but it was substantially
the same. I did not then understand that there was objection to it
in principle. It was opposed as not germane to the bill in hand;
or, if germane, its adoption on that bill was supposed in some way
to embarrass its passage. On that ground, as I understand, it was
opposed,--not on its merits. Senators who spoke against it avowed their
partiality for it, if I understood them aright,--declared, that, if
they had an opportunity on any proper bill, they would vote for it.
Well, Sir, I move it on another bill, to which I believe all will admit
it is entirely germane. There is no suggestion that it is not germane.
It is completely in order. But the objection of the Senator from
Vermont, if I understand, is, that it may interfere with the symmetry
of his bill, and introduce an element which he, who has that bill in
charge and now conducts it so ably, had not intended to introduce.
Very well, Sir; that may be said; but I do not think it a very strong
objection.
The Senator is mistaken, if he supposes that the amendment would
endanger the bill. Just the contrary. It would give the bill strength.
MR. HOWE. Merit.
MR. SUMNER. It would give it both strength and merit,--because it is
a measure which grows out of the exigency of the hour. His bill on
a larger scale is just such a measure. It grows out of the present
exigency, and this is its strength and its merit. We shall pass that,
if we do pass it,--and I hope we shall,--to meet a crisis. We all feel
its necessity. But the measure which I now move grows equally out of
the present exigency. If ingrafted on the bill, it will be, like the
original measure, to meet the demands of the moment. It will be because
without it we shall leave something undone which we ought to do.
Now, I ask Senators, is there any one who doubts that under the
circumstances such a provision ought to pass? Is there any one who
doubts, after what we have seen on a large scale, that the President,
for the time being at least, ought to be deprived of the extraordinary
function he has exercised? He has announced in public speech that he
meant to “kick out of office” present incumbents; and it was in this
proceeding, that, on his return to Washington, he undertook to remove
incumbents wherever he could. It cannot be doubted, Sir, that we owe
protection to these incumbents, so far as possible. This is an urgent
duty. If the Senator from Vermont will tell me any other way in which
this can be promoted successfully, I shall gladly follow him; but
until then I must insist that it shall share the fortunes of the bill,
“pursue the triumph and partake the gale.” If the bill succeeds, then
let this measure, which is as good as the bill.
But the suggestion is made, that the amendment should be matured in
a committee. Why, Sir, it is very simple. Any one can mature it who
applies his mind to it for a few moments. It has already been before
the Senate for several days, discussed once, twice, three times, I
think, not elaborately, but still discussed, so that its merits have
become known; and beside its discussion in open Senate, I am a witness
that it has been canvassed in conversation much. Many Senators have
applied their minds to it, and I may say that in offering it now I
speak not merely for myself, but for others, and the proposition, in
the form in which I present it, is not merely my own, but it is that
of many others, to whose careful supervision it has been submitted.
Therefore I say that it is matured, so far as necessary, and there is
no reason why the Senate should not act upon it. Why postpone what is
in itself so essentially good? Why put off to some unknown future the
chance of applying the remedy to an admitted abuse? Is there any one
here who says that this is not an abuse, that here is not a tyrannical
exercise of power? No one. Then, Sir, let us apply the remedy. This is
the first chance we can get. Take it.
Mr. Fessenden was “not disposed to overturn a system which
has recommended itself to the experience of the Government,
recommended itself to the most approved mode of doing the
business of the country for years, with which no fault whatever
has been found in its practical operation, simply because at
this time we are in this ‘muss’ with regard to appointments.”
He was “opposed utterly to the amendment.” Mr. Sumner replied:--
It is very easy to answer an argument, when you begin by exaggerating
consequences. Now, Sir, the Senator warns us against my proposition,
because it would impose so much business upon the Senate. Is that true?
He reminds us of the number of appointments we should be obliged to
act upon in the Internal Revenue Department. How many? The assistant
assessors. What others? Those can be counted.
MR. CRAGIN. Inspectors under the internal revenue laws.
MR. SUMNER. Inspectors also: those can all be counted. He then reminds
us of the officers in the custom-houses. They can all be counted. It
would not act on clerks in the custom-houses; it acts only, if at all,
on officers of the custom-houses, in a certain sense superior, some
with considerable responsibility. They can all be counted. It is easy
to say that we shall be obliged to deal with many thousands; but I say,
nevertheless, they can all be counted.
But are we not obliged to deal with many thousand postmasters, and
also with many thousand officers in the army? How have we carried this
great war along? The Senate has acted always upon all the nominations
of the Executive for the national army, beginning with the general and
ending with a second lieutenant. Every one comes before the Senate;
and what is the consequence? The Executive has a direct responsibility
to the Senate with regard to every army appointment. But you are not
disposed to renounce that responsibility because it brings into this
Chamber many thousand nominations. Of the officers that I would bring
into the Chamber, some you may consider as second lieutenants in the
civil service, others as first lieutenants, others as captains. And why
should we not act upon them?
The Senator says we had better follow the received system. One of the
finest sentiments that have fallen from one of the most gifted of our
fellow-countrymen is that verse in which he says,--
“New occasions teach new duties.”
We have a new occasion, teaching a new duty. That new occasion is the
misconduct of the Executive of the United States; and the new duty is,
that Congress should exercise all its powers in throwing a shield over
fellow-citizens. The Executive is determined to continue this warfare
upon the incumbents of office; shall we not, if possible, protect them?
That is our duty growing out of this hour. It may not be our duty next
year, or four years from now, as it was not our duty last year, or four
years back. But because it may not be our duty next year, and was not
our duty last year, it does not follow that it is not our duty now. I
would act in the present according to the exigency; and if there is
an abuse, as no one will hesitate, I think, to admit, I would meet it
carefully, considerately, and bravely.
…
When to-morrow comes, if happily we see a clearer sky, I shall
then hearken gladly to the Senator from Maine, and follow him in
sustaining the old system; but meanwhile the old system has ceased to
be applicable. It does not meet the case. It was good enough when we
had a President in harmony with the Senate; but it is not good enough
now. We owe it, therefore, to ourselves, and to those looking here for
protection, to apply the remedy.
January 17th, after an earnest debate, Mr. Sumner spoke again.
MR. PRESIDENT,--As the proposition on which the Senate is about to
vote was brought forward by me, I hope that I may have the indulgence
of the Senate for a few minutes. Had I succeeded in catching the eye of
the Chair at the proper time, I should, perhaps, have said something in
reply to the Senator from Indiana [Mr. HENDRICKS]; but he has already
been answered by the Senator from California [Mr. CONNESS]. Besides,
the topics which he introduced were political. He did not address
himself directly to the proposition itself. I do not say that his
remarks were irrelevant, but obviously he seized the occasion to make a
political speech. The Senator is an excellent debater; he always speaks
to the point as he understands it; and yet his point is apt to be
political. Of course he speaks as one having authority with his party,
in which he is an acknowledged leader. And now, Sir, you will please
to remark, he comes forward as leader for the President of the United
States. The Senator from Indiana, an old-school Democrat,--he will not
deny the appellation,--presents himself as defender of the President. I
congratulate the President upon so able a defender. Before this great
controversy is closed, the President will need all the ability, all
the experience, all the admirable powers of debate which belong to the
distinguished Senator.
As I shall recall the Senate precisely to the question, I begin by
asking the Secretary to read the amendment.
The Secretary read the amendment, when Mr. Sumner continued.
Now, Mr. President, I am unwilling to be diverted from that plain
proposition into any general discussion of a merely political
character. I ask your attention to the simple question on which you are
to vote.
Here I meet objections brought against the amendment, so far as I have
been able to comprehend them. They have chiefly found voice, unless I
am much mistaken, in the Senator from Maine [Mr. FESSENDEN], who is as
earnest as he is unquestionably able. The Senator began with a warning,
and his beginning gave tone to all he said. He warned us not to forget
the lessons of the past; and he warned us also not to fall under the
influence of any animosity. When he warned us not to forget the lessons
of the past, such was his earnestness that he seemed to me fresh from
the study of Confucius. No learned Chinese, anxious that there should
be no departure from the ancient ways, and filled with devotion for
distant progenitors, could have enjoined that duty more reverently.
We were to follow what had been done in the past. Now, Sir, I have a
proper deference for the past; I recognize its lessons, and seek to
comprehend them; but I am not a Chinese, to be swathed by traditions.
I break all bands and wrappers, when the occasion requires. I trust
that the Senator will do so likewise. The present occasion is of such
a character that his lesson is entirely inapplicable. It is well to
regard the past, and study its teachings. It is well also to regard the
future, and seek to provide for its necessities. This is plain enough.
Then, Sir, we are not to act under the influence of animosity.
Excellent counsel. But, pray, what Senator, on an occasion like this,
when we strive to place in the statutes of the country an important
landmark, can allow himself to act under such influence? Is the Senator
from Maine the only one who can claim this immunity? I am sure he will
not make exclusive claim. As he is conscious that he is free from such
disturbing influence, so also am I. He is not more free from it than I
am. Most sincerely from my heart do I disclaim all animosity. I have
nothing of the kind. I see nothing but my duty.
And when I speak of duty, I speak of what I would emphatically call
the duty of the hour. I tried the other day, in what passed between
myself and the Senator from Maine, briefly to illustrate this idea.
I said that we are not to act absolutely with reference to the past,
nor absolutely with reference to the future, but we are to act in the
present. Each hour has its duties, and this hour has duties such as
few other hours in our history have ever presented. Is there any one
who can question it? Are we not in the midst of a crisis? Sometimes
it is said that we are in the midst of a revolution. Call it, if you
will, simply a crisis. It is a critical hour, having its own peculiar
responsibilities. Now, if you ask me in what this present duty
specially centres, on what it specially pivots, I have an easy reply:
it is in protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen, wherever he may
be. I repeat it, protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen is the
imminent duty of the hour. This duty is so commanding, so engrossing,
so absorbing, so peculiar,--let me say, in one word, so sacred,--that
to neglect it is like the neglect of everything. It is nothing less
than a general abdication.
Such, I say emphatically, is the duty of the hour, in presence of which
it is vain for the Senator to cite the experience of other times, when
no such duty was urgent. He does not meet the case. What he says is
irrelevant. All that was done in the past may have been well done; for
it I have no criticism; but at this time it is absolutely inapplicable.
I return, then, to my proposition, that the duty of the hour is
protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen. But when I have said
this, I have not completed the proposition. You may ask, Protection
against whom? I answer plainly, Against the President of the United
States. There, Sir, is the duty of the hour. Ponder it well, and do
not forget it. There was no such duty on our fathers, there was no
such duty on recent predecessors in this Chamber, because there was no
President of the United States who had become the enemy of his country.
Here Mr. Sumner was called to order by Mr. McDougall, a
Democratic Senator from California, who insisted that no
Senator had a right to make use of such words in speaking of
the President. Confusion ensued, with various calls to order.
There was question as to what Mr. Sumner really said. The
presiding officer [Mr. ANTHONY, of Rhode Island] decided that
Mr. Sumner was in order, from which decision Mr. McDougall
appealed, but finally withdrew his appeal, when Mr. Sumner
continued.
When interrupted in the extraordinary manner witnessed by the Senate, I
was presenting reasons in favor of the measure on which we are to vote,
and I insisted as strongly as I could that the special duty of the hour
was protection to loyal and patriotic citizens against the President;
I was replying to what fell from the Senator from Maine, who seems, if
I may judge from his argument, to feel that there is no occasion for
special safeguard, and that the system left by our fathers is enough.
In this reply I used language which, according to the short-hand
reporter, was as follows: I read from his notes:--
“There, Sir, is the duty of the hour. There was no such duty on
our fathers, there was no such duty on our recent predecessors,
because there was no President of the United States who had
become the enemy of his country.”
These were my words when suddenly interrupted. By those words, Sir, I
stand.
MR. DOOLITTLE [of Wisconsin]. I raise a question of order,
whether these words are in order, as stated by the Senator.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair has already decided a
similar point of order. The Chair will submit this question
to the Senate.
The Presiding Officer decided that Mr. Sumner was in order.
Mr. Doolittle appealed from this decision. Debate ensued on the
appeal, when Mr. Lane, of Indiana, moved to lay the appeal upon
the table. Amid much confusion, other motions were interposed.
At last a vote was reached on the motion of Mr. Lane. The yeas
and nays were ordered, and, being taken, resulted,--Yeas 29,
Nays 10. So the appeal was laid upon the table. Mr. Sumner,
who was in his seat, refrained from voting. The Senate then
adjourned.
* * * * *
January 18th, Mr. Sumner, having the floor, continued.
It is only little more than a year ago that I felt it my duty to
characterize a message of the President as “whitewashing.”[77] The
message represented the condition of things in the Rebel States as fair
and promising, when the prevailing evidence was directly the other
way. Of course the message was “whitewashing,” and this was a mild
term for such a document. But you do not forget how certain Senators,
horror-struck at this plainness, leaped forward to vindicate the
President. Yesterday some of these same Senators, horror-struck again,
leaped forward again in the same task. Time has shown that I was right
on the former occasion. If anybody doubts that I was right yesterday,
I commend him to time. He will not be obliged to wait long. Meanwhile
I shall insist always upon complete freedom of debate, and I shall
exercise it. John Milton, in his glorious aspirations, said, “Give
me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to
conscience, above all liberties.”[78] Thank God, now that slave-masters
are driven from this Chamber, such is the liberty of an American
Senator. Of course there can be no citizen of a republic too high for
exposure, as there can be none too low for protection. Exposure of the
powerful, and protection of the weak,--these are not only invaluable
liberties, but commanding duties.
At last the country is opening its eyes to the actual condition of
things. Already it sees that Andrew Johnson, who came to supreme power
by a bloody incident, has become the successor of Jefferson Davis
in the spirit by which he is ruled and in the mischief he inflicts
on his country. It sees the President of the Rebellion revived in
the President of the United States. It sees that the violence which
took the life of his illustrious predecessor is now by his perverse
complicity extending throughout the Rebel States, making all who love
the Union its victims, and filling the land with tragedy. It sees
that the war upon faithful Unionists is still continued under his
powerful auspices, without distinction of color, so that all, both
white and black, are sacrificed. It sees that he is the minister of
discord, and not the minister of peace. It sees, that, so long as his
influence prevails, there is small chance of tranquillity, security,
or reconciliation,--that the restoration of prosperity in the Rebel
States, so much longed for, must be arrested,--that the business of
the whole country must be embarrassed,--and that the conditions so
essential to a sound currency must be postponed. All these things the
country observes. But indignation assumes the form of judgment, when
it is seen also that this incredible, unparalleled, and far-reaching
mischief, second only to the Rebellion itself, of which it is a
continuation, is created, invigorated, and extended through plain
usurpation.
I know that the President sometimes quotes the Constitution, and
professes to carry out its behests. But this pretension is of little
value. A French historian, whose fame as writer is eclipsed by his
greater fame as orator, who has held important posts, and now in
advancing years is still eminent in public life, has used words which
aptly characterize an attempt like that of the President. I quote
from the History of M. Thiers, while describing what is known as the
Revolution of the 18th Brumaire.
“When any one wishes to make a revolution, it is always
necessary to disguise the illegal as much as possible,--to use
the terms of a Constitution in order to destroy it, and the
members of a Government in order to overturn it.”[79]
In this spirit the President has acted. He has bent Constitution, laws,
and men to his arbitrary will, and has even invoked the Declaration
of Independence for the overthrow of those Equal Rights it so grandly
proclaims.
In holding up Andrew Johnson to judgment, I do not dwell on his open
exposure of himself in a condition of intoxication, while taking the
oath of office,--nor do I dwell on the maudlin speeches by which he has
degraded the country as it was never degraded before,--nor do I hearken
to any reports of pardons sold, or of personal corruption. This is not
the case against him, as I deem it my duty to present it. These things
are bad, very bad; but they might not, in the opinion of some Senators,
justify us on the present occasion. In other words, they might not be a
sufficient reason for the amendment which I have moved.
But there is a reason which is ample. The President has usurped
the powers of Congress on a colossal scale, and has employed these
usurped powers in fomenting the Rebel spirit and kindling anew the
dying fires of the Rebellion. Though the head of the Executive, he has
rapaciously seized the powers of the Legislative, and made himself
a whole Congress, in defiance of a cardinal principle of republican
government, that each branch must act for itself, without assuming the
powers of the other; and, in the exercise of these illegitimate powers,
he has become a terror to the good and a support to the wicked. This is
his great and unpardonable offence, for which history must condemn him,
if you do not. He is a usurper, through whom infinite wrong is done to
his country. He is a usurper, who, promising to be a Moses, has become
a Pharaoh. Do you ask for evidence? No witnesses are needed to prove
this guilt. It is found in public acts which are beyond question. It is
already written in the history of our country. Absorbing to himself all
the powers of the National Government, and exclaiming, with the French
monarch, that _he alone_ is “the Nation,” he assumes, without color
of law, to set up new governments in the Rebel States, and, in the
prosecution of this palpable usurpation, places these governments of
his own creation in the hands of traitors, to the exclusion of patriot
citizens, white and black, who, through his agency, are trampled again
under the heel of the Rebellion. Thus a power plainly illegitimate
is wielded to establish governments plainly illegitimate, which are
nothing but engines of an intolerable oppression, under which peace
and union are impossible; and this monstrous usurpation is continued
in constant efforts by every means to enforce the recognition of these
illegitimate governments, so tyrannical in origin and so baneful in
the influence they are permitted to exert. And now, in the maintenance
of this usurpation, the President employs the power of removal from
office. Some, who would not become the partisans of his tyranny, he
has, according to his own language, “kicked out.” Others are spared,
but silenced by this menace and the fate of their associates. Wherever
any vacancy occurs, whether in the Loyal or the Rebel States, it
is filled by the partisans of his usurpation. Other vacancies are
created to provide for these partisans. I need not add, that, just in
proportion as we sanction such nominations or fail to arrest them,
according to the measure of our power, we become parties to his
usurpation.
Here I am brought directly to the practical application of this
simple statement. I have already said that the duty of the hour is in
protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen against the President.
This cannot be doubted. The first duty of a Government is protection.
The crowning glory of a Republic is, that it leaves no human being,
however humble, without protection. Show me a man exposed to wrong,
and I show you an occasion for the exercise of all the power that God
and the Constitution have given you. It will not do to say that the
cases are too numerous, or that the remedy cannot be applied without
interfering with a system handed down from our fathers, or, worse
still, that you have little sympathy with this suffering. This will not
do. You must apply the remedy, or fail in duty. Especially must you
apply it, when, as now, this wrong is part of a huge usurpation in the
interest of recent Rebellion.
The question, then, recurs, Are you ready to apply the remedy,
according to your powers? The necessity for this remedy may be seen in
the Rebel States, and also in the Loyal States, for the usurpation is
felt in both.
If you look at the Rebel States, you will see everywhere the triumph of
Presidential tyranny. There is not a mail which does not bring letters
without number supplicating the exercise of all the powers of Congress
against the President. There is not a newspaper which does not exhibit
evidence that you are already tardy in this work of necessity. There
is not a wind from that suffering region which is not freighted with
voices of distress. And yet you hesitate.
I shall not be led aside to consider the full remedy, for it is not my
habit to travel out of the strict line of debate. Therefore I confine
myself to the bill before us, which is applicable alike to Loyal and
Rebel States.
This bill has its origin in what I have already called the special
duty of the hour, which is protection of loyal and patriotic citizens
against the President. I have shown the necessity of this protection.
But the brutal language the President employs shows the spirit in which
he acts. The Senator from Indiana [Mr. HENDRICKS], whose judgment could
not approve this brutality, doubted if the President had used it. Let
me settle this question. Here is the “National Intelligencer,” always
indulgent to the President. In its number for the 13th of September
last it thus reports what the Chief Magistrate said at St. Louis:--
“I believe that one set of men have enjoyed the emoluments of
office long enough, and they should let another portion of
the people have a chance. [_Cheers._] How are these men to be
got out [_A voice, ‘Kick ’em out!’--cheers and laughter_],
unless your Executive can put them out,--unless you can reach
them through the President? Congress says he shall not turn
them out, and they are trying to pass laws to prevent it being
done. Well, let me say to you, if you will stand by me in this
action [_cheers_],--if you will stand by me in trying to give
the people a fair chance,--to have 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. [_Great
cheering._]”
Such diction as this is without example. Proceeding from the President,
it is a declaration of “policy” which you must counteract; and in this
duty make a precedent, if need be.
The bill before the Senate, which the Senator from Vermont [Mr.
EDMUNDS] has shaped with so much care and now presses so earnestly,
arises from this necessity. Had Abraham Lincoln been spared to us,
there would have been no occasion for any such measure. It is a bill
arising from the exigency of the hour. As such it is to be judged.
But it does not meet the whole case. Undertaking to give protection,
it gives it to a few only, instead of the many. It provides against
the removal of persons whose offices, according to existing law and
Constitution, are held by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate. Its special object is to vindicate the power of the Senate over
the offices committed to it according to existing law and Constitution.
Thus vindicating the power of the Senate, it does something indirectly
to protect the citizen. In this respect it is beneficent, and I shall
be glad to vote for it.
The amendment goes further in the same direction. It provides that
all agents and officers appointed by the President or by the head of a
Department, with salaries exceeding $1,000, shall be appointed only by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and it further proceeds
to vacate all such appointments made since 1st July last past, so as to
arrest the recent process of “kicking out.” The proposition is simple;
and I insist that it is necessary, unless you are willing to leave
fellow-citizens without protection against tyranny. Really the case is
so plain that I do not like to argue it, and yet you will pardon me, if
I advert to certain objections which have been made.
We have been told that the number of persons it would bring before
the Senate is such that it would clog and embarrass the public
business,--in other words, that we have not time to deal with so many
cases. This is a strange argument. Because the victims are numerous,
therefore we are to fold our hands and let the sacrifice proceed.
But I insist that just in proportion to the number is the urgency
of your duty. Every victim has a voice; and when these voices count
by thousands, you have no right to turn away and say, “They are too
numerous for the Senate.” This is my answer to the objection founded on
numbers.
But this is not all. You did not shrink, during the war, from the
numerous nominations of military officers, counting by thousands;
nor did you shrink from the numerous nominations of naval officers,
counting by thousands. The power over all these you never relaxed, and
I know well you never will relax. You know, that, even if unable to
consider carefully every case, yet the power over them enables you to
interpose a veto on any improper nomination. The power of the Senate is
a warning against tyranny in the Executive. But it is difficult to see
any strong reason for this power in the case of the army and navy which
is not applicable also to civil officers. This I should say in tranquil
times; but there is another reason peculiar to the hour. Even if in
tranquil times I were disposed to leave the appointing power as it is,
I am not disposed to do so now.
Then, again, we are told that we must not abandon the system of
our fathers. I have already answered this objection precisely, in
saying, that, whatever may have been the system of the Fathers,
it is inadequate to the present hour. But I am not satisfied that
the proposition moved by me is inconsistent with the system of the
Fathers. The officers of the Internal Revenue did not exist then,
and the inferior officers of the customs were few in number and with
small emoluments. But all district attorneys and marshals, even if
their salary was no more than two hundred dollars, were subject to the
confirmation of the Senate.
MR. EDMUNDS. And so they are yet.
MR. SUMNER. And so they are yet. But can the Senator doubt, that, if,
at the time when those officers were made subject to the confirmation
of the Senate, weighers and gaugers and inspectors had been as well
paid as they are now, they, too, would have been brought under the
control of this body? I cannot.
MR. EDMUNDS. I do not think they would.
MR. SUMNER. But even if the Senator does not accept the view which I
present on the probable course of our fathers, he cannot resist the
argument, that, whatever may have been the old system, we must act now
in the light of present duties. I repeat, a system good for our fathers
may not be good for this hour, which is so full of danger.
Then, again, we are told, with something of indifference, if not
of levity, that it is not the duty of the Senate to look after the
“bread and butter” of officeholders. This is a familiar way of saying
that these small cases are not worthy of the Senate. Not so do I
understand our duties. There is no case so small as not to be worthy
of the Senate, especially if in this way you can save a citizen from
oppression and weaken the power of an oppressor.
Something has been said about the curtailment of the Executive power,
and the Senator from Maine [Mr. FESSENDEN] has even argued against the
amendment as conferring upon the President additional powers. This
is strange. The effect of the amendment is, by clear intendment, to
take from the President a large class of nominations and bring them
within the control of the Senate. Thus it is obviously a curtailment of
Executive power, which I insist has become our bounden duty. The old
resolution of the House of Commons, moved by Mr. Dunning, is applicable
here: “The influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and
ought to be diminished.” In this spirit we must put a curb on the
President, now maintaining illegitimate power by removals from office.
* * * * *
Mr. President, I have used moderate language, strictly applicable
to the question. But it is my duty to remind you how much the public
welfare depends upon courageous counsels. Courage is now the highest
wisdom. Do not forget that we stand face to face with an enormous and
malignant usurper, through whom the Republic is imperilled,--that
Republic which, according to our oaths of office, we are bound to save
from all harm. The lines are drawn. On one side is the President, and
on the other side is the people of the United States. It is the old
pretension of prerogative, to be encountered, I trust, by that same
inexorable determination which once lifted England to heroic heights.
The present pretension is more outrageous, and its consequences are
more deadly; surely the resistance cannot be less complete. An American
President must not claim an immunity denied to an English king. In the
conflict he has so madly precipitated, I am with the people. In the
President I put no trust, but in the people I put infinite trust. Who
will not stand with the people?
Here, Sir, I close what I have to say at this time. But before I take
my seat, you will pardon me, if I read a brief lesson, which seems
written for the hour. The words are as beautiful as emphatic.
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy
present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we
must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must
think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and
then we shall save our country.”
These are the words of Abraham Lincoln.[80] They are as full of vital
force now as when he uttered them. I entreat you not to neglect the
lesson. Learn from its teaching how to save our country.
Mr. Edmunds and Mr. Reverdy Johnson replied. Mr. Howe, of
Wisconsin, and Mr. Lane, of Indiana, favored the amendment. Mr.
Johnson suggested that the expression of opinion adverse to the
President would disqualify a Senator to sit on his impeachment.
Mr. Sumner interrupted him to say:--
What right have I to know that the President is to be impeached? How
can I know it? And let me add, even if I could know it, there can be no
reason in that why I should not argue the measure directly before the
Senate, and present such considerations as seem to me proper, founded
on the misconduct of that officer.
Mr. Sumner here changed his amendment by striking out the
limitation of $1,000 and inserting $1,500. He then said:--
I make the change in deference to Senators about me, and especially
yielding to the earnest argument of the Senator from Vermont [Mr.
EDMUNDS], who was so much disturbed by the idea that the Senate would
be called to act upon inspectors. My experience teaches me not to be
disturbed at anything. I am willing to act on an inspector or a night
watchman; and if I could, I would save him from Executive tyranny. The
Senator would leave him a prey, so far as I can understand, for no
other reason than because he is an inspector, an officer of inferior
dignity, and because, if we embrace all inspectors, we shall have too
much to do.
Sir, we are sent to the Senate for work, and especially to surround
the citizen with all possible safeguards. The duty of the hour is as I
have declared. It ought not to be postponed. Every day of postponement
is to my mind a sacrifice. Let us not, then, be deterred even by the
humble rank of these officers, or by their number, but, whether humble
or numerous, embrace them within the protecting arms of the Senate.
The amendment was rejected,--Yeas 16, Nays 21. After further
debate, the bill passed the Senate,--Yeas 29, Nays 9. It then
passed the House with amendments. To settle the difference
between the two Houses, there was a Committee of Conference,
when the bill agreed upon passed the Senate,--Yeas 22, Nays
10,--and passed the House,--Yeas 112, Nays 41. March 2d, the
bill was vetoed, when, notwithstanding the objections of the
President, it passed the Senate,--Yeas 35, Nays 11,--and passed
the House,--Yeas 138, Nays 40,--and thus became a law.[81]