of the Federal Government, to
protest against the first two clauses of the first resolution adopted
by the House of Representatives on the 5th instant, and published in the
Congressional Globe on the succeeding day. These clauses are in the
following words:

_Resolved_, That a committee of five members be appointed by the Speaker
for the purpose, first, of investigating whether the President of the
United States or any other officer of the Government has, by money,
patronage, or other improper means, sought to influence the action of
Congress or any committee thereof for or against the passage of any law
appertaining to the rights of any State or Territory; and, second, also
to inquire into and investigate whether any officer or officers of the
Government have, by combination or otherwise, prevented or defeated, or
attempted to prevent or defeat, the execution of any law or laws now
upon the statute book, and whether the President has failed or refused
to compel the execution of any law thereof.

I confine myself exclusively to these two branches of the resolution,
because the portions of it which follow relate to alleged abuses in
post-offices, navy-yards, public buildings, and other public works
of the United States. In such cases inquiries are highly proper in
themselves and belong equally to the Senate and the House, as incident
to their legislative duties and being necessary to enable them to
discover and to provide the appropriate legislative remedies for any
abuses which may be ascertained. Although the terms of the latter
portion of the resolution are extremely vague and general, yet my sole
purpose in adverting to them at present is to mark the broad line of
distinction between the accusatory and the remedial clauses of this
resolution. The House of Representatives possess no power under the
Constitution over the first or accusatory portion of the resolution
except as an impeaching body, whilst over the last, in common with the
Senate, their authority as a legislative body is fully and cheerfully
admitted.

It is solely in reference to the first or impeaching power that I
propose to make a few observations. Except in this single case, the
Constitution has invested the House of Representatives with no power,
no jurisdiction, no supremacy whatever over the President. In all other
respects he is quite as independent of them as they are of him. As a
coordinate branch of the Government he