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HarpWeek
Commentary: This is the first time that Harpers Weekly discusses the
possible impeachment of Andrew Johnson. |
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SHALL THE PRESIDENT BE IMPEACHED?
In the course of our
political history it has been often said by stump orators, in the rhetorical culmination
of their discourses, that the President ought to be impeached; but so serious a measure
has never yet been adopted by Congress nor justified by the country. But when two
gentlemen like General Butler and Mr. Boutwell, each of whom will be members of the next
Congress, announce that they shall take the preliminary steps of impeachment, and when one
of them states in detail the grounds upon which he would justify his action, it is but
fair to suppose that they mean what they say, and intend to bring the subject before
Congress.
Mr. Boutwell says, and with perfect
truth, that an impeachment is not a revolutionary measure. It is no more soindeed,
in our history, not as much soas an election. The Constitution plainly provides for
impeachment as it does for any other emergency. It is the only way in which the official
offenses of certain officers can be reached. But it is, of course, a measure of the very
gravest characterone which in ordinary times would profoundly excite the country,
and which in extraordinary times like these would produce an equally extraordinary
agitation. It is a remedy which should be invoked only in great emergencies. The offense
must be plain, the peril indisputable, to justify the temporary suspension of the
executive authority in the person if its constitutional representative. For, unlike other
trials, it seems, according to General Butler, that, in case of impeachment, the accused
is to be considered guilty until he is proved to be innocent. He may be suspended from his
functions until he proves his unblemished right to exercise them.
There are two questions which immediately
present themselves. Has the conduct of the President made him liable to impeachment? And
if so, would it be wise to impeach him?
We are certainly correct in saying that
there is no general conviction at present that the President ought to be impeached. That
his Presidency is a national misfortune, and that but for him the country would be rapidly
returning to a normal condition, is unquestionable. That he is entirely unfitted by
natural capacity and training for the office he holds is painfully conspicuous. That he
comprehends neither the causes nor the consequences of the war, and is curiously ignorant
both of the American people and of the dominant idea of our politics is undeniable. But
these, although misfortunes for the country, are not impeachable offenses. And we are to
remember that the President did not thrust himself into his office, but came to it by
constitutional election and succession. Much is said of his personal habits, but it is
rumor merely. It has not appeared, nor has it been seriously alleged, that he has habits
which substantially prevent him from properly fulfilling his official duties.
Ought he then to be impeached for
perilous political offenses? He is charged with usurping the prerogative of Congress in
settling the questions left by the war, and with a shameful prostitution of official
patronage to personal ends. But as to the first charge, his offense thus far is nothing
more than a violent and indecent assertion of what is constitutional and of what Congress
ought to do. He has expressed opinions, but he has as yet attempted no acts. He has
indeed, denounced the opinions of those who differ with him as treason, and their holders
as deserving of the gibbet. But this merely shows the mental muddle in which he has been
long involved. It is natural to suppose that a man of his passionate temperament will
endeavor to enforce his views in some way, and it is the part of wisdom to be watchful and
ready. But until that time his views are merely his own opinions, and they are opinions
held among a people who thoroughly comprehend the situation.
The Presidents abuse of the
appointing power, and his total misconception of the relations of the various officers to
the Government, are indeed extraordinary, but they are not unprecedented. His conduct is
not essentially different from that of other late Presidents, and will lead undoubtedly,
as it should, to a legal remedy of a very menacing danger to which the Government is
exposed. The whole question of appointment and removal, in its exact constitutional
relations, is still an open one, and if the President be guilty of the grossest and
baldest attempts at political bribery by patronage, his offense is not so peculiar as to
justify, in the public mind, so extraordinary a correction as impeachment.
It would be enough, therefore, to prove
the inexpediency, under the circumstances, of an impeachment, that the grounds of action
are neither evident nor adequate to the public mind. But there are other reasons which
render it especially impolitic. It would unnecessarily embitter and prolong the present
party conflict. Under the circumstancesfor it is circumstances which determine
expediencyit would wear the air of an act of indignant revenge; and it would be
curiously disproportioned to the present offense. If, indeed, as Mr. Wendell Phillips
seems to suppose, the President is a conscious and malignant conspirator, in concert with
others, to put the Government into the hands of its enemies, and to force its friends into
the position of rebels, the situation is revolutionary, and demands unusual measures. But
the elections show that, whatever may be the foul intentions of any man or party, the
great mass of loyal American citizens are neither deceived nor asleep. They have paid a
fearful price for their control of the Government, and they do not mean to relinquish it.
Mr. Wade Hampton, and Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, and Mayor Monroe, and Raphael Semmes, and
the President, and Mr. Seward, and Mr. John T. Hoffman, and Mr. Vallandigham, and Mr.
Montgomery Blair, may say and do what they will. They can neither wheedle nor frighten the
people who saved the Union from securing it in the way which seems to them most just, most
generous, and most enduring. And that security no more requires the impeachment of the
President than the hanging of Jefferson Davis.
Articles Related to the Initial Impeachment
Discussions:
The President Judged by Himself
August 25, 1866, page 530
Reconstruction and How
it Works (cartoon)
September 1, 1866, pages 552-553
Which Is The More
Illegal (cartoon)
September 8, 1866, page 569
The New Orleans Report
October 20, 1866, page 658
The New Orleans Massacre
IMarch 30, 1867, page 202
Text from Illustration of Andys Trip
October 27, 1866, pages 680-681
The Great Campaign of
66
September 29, 1866, page 610
What Next?
October 27, 1866, page 674
King Andy (cartoon)
November 3, 1866 page 696
Shall the President be
Impeached?
November 3, 1866, page 690
The Popular Will
November 24, 1866, page 738
Andy Makes a Call on
Uncle Sam, Who Rises to the Occasion (cartoon)
December 1, 1866, page 768
Impeachment and General
Butler
December 15, 1866, page 786
Congress
December 22, 1866, page 803
What Next?
December 29, 1866, page 818