f. "During the eighty years of our
political existence," said Mr. Stanbery, "we have witnessed the
fiercest contests of party. . . . A favorite legislative policy has
more than once been defeated by the obstinate and determined resistance
of the President, upon some of the gravest and most important questions
we have ever had or are ever likely to have. The Presidential policy
and the legislative policy have stood in direct antagonism. During
all that time this fearful power of Impeachment was in the hands of
the legislative department, and more than once a resort to it has been
advised by extreme party men, as a sure remedy for party purposes; but
happily that evil hitherto has not come upon us."

Hon. John A. Bingham summed up the case on behalf of the House and
reviewed all the charges against the President, answering point by
point the argument of his counsel. "I ask you, senators," said Mr.
Bingham, "how long men would deliberate upon the question of whether
a private citizen, arraigned at the bar of one of your tribunals of
justice for criminal violation of law, should be permitted to interpose
a plea in justification of his criminal act that his only purpose was
to interpret the Constitution and laws for himself, that he violated
the law in the exercise of his prerogative to test its validity
hereafter, at such day as might suit his own convenience, in the courts
of justice. Surely, senators, it is as competent for the private
citizen to interpose such justification in answer to crime as it is
for the President of the United States to interpose it, and for the
simple reason that the Constitution is no respecter of persons, and
vests neither in the President nor in the private citizen judicial
power. . . . For the Senate to sustain any such plea would in my
judgment be a gross violation of the already violated Constitution and
laws of a free people."

When the counsel on both sides had finished, a certain period was
allowed for senators to prepare and file their opinions on the case.
This was done by twenty-nine senators(4) and the question was thus
re-argued with consummate ability, for the Senate contained a number
of lawyers of high rank and long experience at the bar. On the 11th of
May the Senate was ready to vote, and the interest in the result was
intense. There had been much speculation as to the position of certain
senators, but as all the members of the body had maintained discreet
silence durin