There is no instance in our history where there has been such a succession of votes, with such large majorities, declaring the conclusions of the Senate, and fixing them beyond recall.

Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just”; but the Tenure-of-Office Act is armed thrice, by the votes of the Senate.

The apologists of the President seem to say of these solemn votes, “Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed”; but such a threefold record cannot be treated with levity.

In expounding this law, the judgment of the Court cannot in any degree be influenced by the construction placed upon it by individual members of Congress in the debate which took place on its passage, nor by the motives or reasons assigned…

Congress, instead of adopting the remedy suggested by this father of the Constitution, and expelling the President by process of impeachment, attempted to wrest from him the power he was abusing.

It begins by misconstruing the operative words of the proviso, that the Cabinet officers “shall hold their offices respectively for and during the term of the President by whom they may have been appointed.” On the face there is no…

Clearly, then, it was the intention of the statute to protect the whole Cabinet, whether originally appointed by Andrew Johnson, or originally appointed by his predecessor and continued by him.

If we look at the statute in its simplicity, its twofold object is apparent,--first, to prohibit removals, and, secondly, to limit certain terms of service.

The pretension that any one of the Cabinet was left to the unchecked power of the President is irreconcilable with the concluding words of the proviso, which declare that they shall be “subject to removal by and with the advice and consent…

Not a provision, not a clause, not a sentence, not a phrase in the Constitution can be made an apology even for the present objection,--absolutely nothing; and here I challenge reply.

Without any support in the Constitution, its partisans borrow one of the worst pretensions of Slavery, and utter it now as it was uttered by Slave-Masters.

Alas that Slavery, which we thought had been slain, is not entirely dead!

Again it stalks into this Chamber, like the majesty of buried Denmark,--“in the same figure, like the king that’s dead,”--and then, like this same ghost, it cries out, “Swear!” and then again, “Swear!”--and Senators pledged to Freedom take…

For myself, I insist not only that Slavery shall be buried out of sight, but that all its wretched pretensions hostile to Human Rights shall be buried with it.

A fundamental condition in favor of Human Rights is of that essential character that it must be required.

Kindred to the Preamble is this supreme obligation imposed on the United States to guaranty a republican government.

By your oaths, by all the responsibilities of your position, you must say what in your judgment is a republican government, and you must so decide as not to discredit our fathers and not to give an unworthy example to mankind.

Our fathers gave it to us, as amid the thunders of Sinai, when they put forth their Declaration of Independence.

There it stands in the very front of our Great Charter, embodied in two simple, self-evident truths,--first, that all men are equal in rights, and, secondly, that all just government is founded only on the consent of the governed,--the two…

Its truth is like the sun; blind is he who cannot see it.

Clearly, then, that is a republican government where all have equal rights and participate in the government.

The Constitution itself sets the example of imposing conditions upon the States.

Positively it says, no State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; no State shall grant letters of marque and reprisal; no State shall coin money; no State shall emit bills of credit.

Again it says, no State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, or keep troops or ships of war in time of peace.

All these are conditions in the text of the Constitution so plain and intelligible as to require no further elucidation.