Senate had any right to
pass such resolution. So far as I remember, no one pretended that, if
the President had exceeded his authority, the Senate might not so
declare by resolution. No one ventured to contend that, whether the
rights of the Senate were invaded or not, the Senate must hold its
peace.

The Protest labors strenuously to show that the Senate adopted the
resolution of the 28th of March, under its _judicial_ authority. The
reason of this attempt is obvious enough. If the Senate, in its judicial
character, has been trying the President, then he has not had a regular
and formal trial; and, on that ground, it is hoped the public sympathy
may be moved. But the Senate has acted not in its judicial, but in its
legislative capacity. As a legislative body, it has defended its own
just authority, and the authority of the other branch of the
legislature. Whatever attacks our own rights and privileges, or whatever
encroaches on the power of both houses, we may oppose and resist, by
declaration, resolution, or other similar proceedings. If we look to the
books of precedents, if we examine the journals of legislative bodies,
we find everywhere instances of such proceedings.

It is to be observed, Sir, that the Protest imposes silence on the House
of Representatives as well as on the Senate. It declares that no power
is conferred on either branch of the legislature, to consider or decide
upon official acts of the executive, for the purpose of censure, and
without a view to legislation or impeachment. This, I think, Sir, is
pretty high-toned pretension. According to this doctrine, neither house
could assert its own rights, however the executive might assail them;
neither house could point out the danger to the people, however fast
executive encroachment might be extending itself, or whatever danger it
might threaten to the public liberties. If the two houses of Congress
may not express an opinion of executive conduct by resolution, there is
the same reason why they should not express it in any other form, or by
any other mode of proceeding. Indeed, the Protest limits both houses,
expressly, to the case of impeachment. If the House of Representatives
are not about to impeach the President, they have nothing to say of his
measures or of his conduct; and unless the Senate are engaged in trying
an impeachment, their mouths, too, are stopped. It is the practice of
the President to send us an annual message, in which he rehears