ate that President Lincoln
had "claimed and exercised the power of organizing military commissions
under which he arrested and imprisoned citizens within the loyal
States. He had no Act of Congress warranting it, and the Supreme Court
has decided that the act was against the express provisions of the
Constitution. According to the gentleman on the other side, then, Mr.
Lincoln must be convicted. . . . The gentleman seems to acknowledge
that there must have been a motive. There can be no crime without
motive; but when the party comes forward and offers to prove his
motive, the answer is, 'You shall not prove it.' When he comes forward
and offers to prove it from his warm, living heart, the answer is, 'We
will make up your motive out of the presumptions of law and conclude
you upon that subject. We will not hear you.'"

Mr. Boutwell renewed with vigor the argument that the exception made
in the Tenure-of-office Act, in regard to members of the Cabinet, did
not give the President power to remove Mr. Stanton. "We maintain,"
said Mr. Boutwell, "that Mr. Stanton was holding the office of
Secretary of War for and in the term of President Lincoln, by whom he
had been appointed. . . . It was not a new office; it was not a new
term. Mr. Johnson succeeded to Mr. Lincoln's office and for the
remainder of Mr. Lincoln's term of office. He is serving out Mr.
Lincoln's term as President."

Mr. Groesbeck's reply on this point was effective: "The gentleman has
said this is Mr. Lincoln's term. The dead have no ownership in offices
or estate of any kind. Mr. Johnson is President of the United States
with a term, and this is his term. _But it would make no difference if
Mr. Lincoln were living to-day. If Mr. Lincoln were the President to-day
he could remove Mr. Stanton. Mr. Lincoln would not have appointed
him during this term. It was during Mr. Lincoln's first term that Mr.
Stanton received his appointment, and not this term; and an appointment
by a President during one term, by the operation of this law, will not
extend the appointee during another term because that same party may
happen to be re-elected to the Presidency. Mr. Stanton therefore
holds under his commission and not under the law_."

Mr. Thaddeus Stevens attempted to address the Senate, but found himself
too much exhausted and handed his manuscript to General Butler, who
read it to the Senate. The argument had many of the significant
features of Mr. Stevens