ry out and which no other man could make good,
that with the Army and his influence among the rebels of the South,
whom he had brought to his support by his previous violations of law,
he could secure the electoral votes of those ten States by excluding
the negroes whom we have enfranchised from all participation in the
election. Succeeding in this, we were to be met next February with the
electoral votes of those ten States given for himself as President of
the United States. If by fortune, as was his hope, he should receive
a sufficient number of votes in the North to make a majority, then,
with the support of the Army which he had corrupted, he had determined
to be inaugurated President of the United States at the hazard of civil
war. To-day, sir, we escape from these evils and dangers."

--Mr. Kerr of Indiana, speaking for the Democrats, said: "I and those
with whom I act in this House had no knowledge whatever of the purpose
of the Executive to do the act for which the movement is again
inaugurated for his deposition. We are therefore free in every sense
to submit to the guidance alone of reason and duty."

Late in the afternoon Mr. Stevens rose to close the debate. He said:
"In order to sustain Impeachment under our Constitution I do not hold
that it is necessary to prove a crime as an indictable offense, or any
act _malum in se_. I agree with the distinguished gentleman from
Pennsylvania, on the other side of the House (Mr. Woodward), who holds
this to be a purely political proceeding. It is needed as a remedy
for malfeasance in office and to prevent the continuance thereof.
Beyond that it is not intended as a punishment for past offenses or
for future example." He made one of his peculiarly pungent speeches,
which for some unexplained reason was scarcely less bitter on General
Grant than upon President Johnson. The whole day's proceedings had
been extraordinary. Never before had so many members addressed the
House on a single day. The speeches actually delivered and the
speeches for which leave to print was given, fill more than two hundred
columns of the _Congressional Globe_. When Mr. Stevens closed the
debate, many members who still desired to be heard were cut off by
the previous question.

The vote on the resolution impeaching the President resulted in _ayes_
126, _noes_ 47, not voting 17.(3) Mr. Stevens immediately offered a
resolution directing the "appointment of a committee of two members