the transaction. It is said that this evidence is distinguishable from that which has been already introduced. The Chief Justice is not able to distinguish it; but he will submit directly to the Senate the question whether it is admissible or not. Mr. CONNESS. I ask for the yeas and nays on that question.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted-yeas, 9; nays, 37; as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Bayard, Buckalew, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, Hendricks, McCreery, Patterson of Tennessee, and Vickers--9.

NAYS-Messrs. Cameron, Cattell, Chandler, Conkling, Conness, Corbett Cragin, Drake, Ferry, Fessenden, Fowler, Frelinghuysen, Grimes, Harlan, Howard, Howe, Johnson, Morgan, Morrill of Maine, Morrill of Vermont, Morton, Nye, Patterson of New Hampshire, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Ross, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, Thayer, Tipton, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Willey, Williams, Wilson, and Yates-37.

NOT VOTING--Messrs. Anthony, Cole, Edmunds, Henderson, Norton, Saulsbury, Sumner, and Wade-8.

So the Senate decided the question to be inadmissible.

Mr. EVARTS. This evidence being excluded, we have no other questions to ask of the witness.

Mr. Manager BUTLER. We have none, sir.

Mr. EVARTS. We have reached a point, Mr. Chief Justice and Senators, at which it will be convenient to us that we should not be required to produce more evidence to-day.

Mr. Manager BUTLER. Mr. President, I hope upon this movement for delay the President's counsel will be called upon to go on with their case, and I have only to put to them the exact thing that the President's counsel, Cox and Mr. Merrick, used in the case of General Thomas before the criminal court of this District, according to Merrick's testimony. It is always ungracious to object to delay because of the sickness of counsel. We should have been glad to have Mr. Stanbery here, but these gentlemen present can try this case. There are four of them. When a motion to postpone the case of Thomas before Chief Justice Cartter was made-to postpone the case because of the sickness of Mr. Carpenter, for a single day, the President's counsel, arguing his case, trying his case before the court, said "No; a case involving so much of public administration cannot wait for the sickness of counsel." "I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word." The President's counsel there well told us what we ought to do. In the case of Mr. Thomas the President could not wait for sick men or sick women. The case must go through. We cannot wait now, on the same ground, for the sickness of the learned Attorney General; and why should we? Why should not this President be called upon now to go on? We have been here thirty-three working days since the President actually filed his answer, and we, the managers, have used but six days of them, and the counsel but part of seven. Twenty-one of them have been given to delays on motion of the President, and there have been four adjournments on the days we have worked earlier than the usual time of adjournment, in order to accommodate the President.

Now, the whole legislation of this country is stopping; the House of Representatives has to be, day by day, here at your bar. The taxes of the country cannot be revised because this trial is in the way. The appropriations for carrying on the government cannot be passed because this trial is in the way. Nothing can be done, and the whole country waits upon us and our action, and it is not time now for the exhibitions of courtesy. Larger, higher, greater interests are at stake than such questions of ceremony. Far be it from me not to desire to be courteous, and not to desire that we should have our absent and sick friend here to take part with us; but the interests of the people are greater than the interests of any one individual. Gentlemen of the Senate, this is the closing up of a war wherein three hundred thousand men laid down their lives

to save the country. In one day we sacrificed them by tens and twenties of thousands on the field of battle, and shall the country wait now in its march to safety because of the sickness of one man and pause for an indefinite timebecause the duration of sickness is always indefinite? More than that, I have here in my hand testimony of what is going on this day and this hour in the south.

Mr. CURTIS. We object to the introduction of any testimony.

Mr. EVARTS. We object to the relevancy of it here.

Mr. Manager BUTLER. The relevancy of it is this, that while we are waiting for the Attorney General to get well, and you are asked to delay this trial for that reason, numbers of our fellow-citizens are being murdered day by day. There is not a man here who does not know that the moment justice is done on this great criminal these murders will cease.

Mr. CURTIS rose.

Mr. Manager BUTLER. I cannot be interrupted. This is the great fact which stands here before us, and we are asked, "Why stand ye here idle?" by every true man in the country. Mr. Chief Justice, in Alabama your register of bankruptcy, appointed by yourself, General Spencer, of Tuscaloosa, is driven to-day from his duties and his home by the Ku-Klux Klan, upon fear of his life, and I have the evidence of it lying on our table; and shall we here delay this trial any longer, under our responsibility to our countrymen, to our consciences, and to our God, because of a question of courtesy? While we are being courteous the true Union men of the south are being murdered, and on our heads and on our skirts is this blood if we remain any longer idle.

Again, sir, since you have begun this trial-I hold the sworn evidence of what I say in my hand-since the 20th day of February last, and up to the 4th day of this present April-and no gold had been sold by the Treasury prior to that time since December 12-$10,800,000 of your gold has been sold at a sacrifice to your treasury, and by whom? More than one-half of it, $5,600,000, by one McGinnis, whom the Senate would not permit to hold office; and over $10,000 in currency, of which I have the official evidence here, under the sworn oath of the Assistant Treasurer at New York, has been paid to him, after the Senate had refused to have him hold any office, and had rejected him as a minister to Sweden. He now takes charge of the sale of your gold, by order of the Executive, as a broker, and we are to wait day by day while he puts into his pocket from the treasury of the country money by the thousands, because this gold is sold from one and one-eighth per cent. to three per cent. lower than the market rates, at different dates, as taken from the best tables. The commissions alone amount to what I have said, supposing the gold to be sold honestly by this rejected diplomat.

Worse still, sir; I have here from the same source the fact that since the 1st day of January last there have been bought in the city of New York alone, onbehalf of the Treasury, $27,058,100 of the bonds of the United States, by men who return them from three-eighths, one-half, five-eighths, to three-quarters per cent. above the market price, and since February 20, $14,181,600 worth. Mr. Manager LOGAN. Below.

Mr. Manager BUTLER. No; I mean what I say, above. I never make mistakes in such matters. I know what I say. From the 3d of January to the 28th of January, by such purchases, the price of bonds was run up and the people were made to pay that difference-run up from one hundred and four and three-quarters to one hundred and eight per cent., and still the purchases went on, and they have gone on from that day of February down to the 4th of April, when the managers of impeachment on the part of the House of Representatives felt it their duty to take this testimony of the assistant treasurer at New York under oath.

Now, I say, for the safety of the finances of the people, for the progress of

the legislation of the people, for the safety of the true and loyal men, black and white, in the south who have perilled their lives for four years; yea, five years; yea, six years; yea, seven years, in your behalf; for the good of the country, for all that is dear to any man and patriot, I pray let this trial proceed; let us come to a determination of this issue. If the President of the United States goes free and acquit, then the country must deal with that state of facts as it arises; but if he, as the House of Representatives instructs me, and as I believe, is guilty; if on his head rests the responsibility; if from his policy, from his obstruction of the peace of the country, all this corruption and all these murders come, in the name of Heaven let us have an end of them and see to it that we can sit at least four hours a day to attend to this, the great business of the people.

Sir, it may be supposed here that I am mistaken as to time wasted; but let us see; let me give you day and date. The articles of impeachment were presented on March 4, and the summons was returnable March 13, at which time the President, by its terms, was requested to answer. Delay was given, on his application for forty days, to the 23d-ten days, when the answer was filed, and a motion was made for thirty days' delay, which failed. Then a motion for a reasonable time after replication was filed, which was done on the 24th. Time was given, on motion of the President's counsel, until the 30th-six days. On that day the managers opened their case, and proceeded without delay with their evidence till April 4-six days. Then, at the request of the President's counsel, adjourned to April 9-five days. Mr. Curtis opened a part of a day, and asked for an adjournment till the 10th, wherein we lost half a day. They continued putting in evidence till the 11th (12th being Sunday) and 13th. Because of sickness, adjourned again over till Wednesday, 14th. Wednesday adjourned early, because counsel could go no further. Thursday, now another motion to adjourn, because counsel cannot go on. Thirty-four days since the President filed his answer; six days used by the managers in putting in their case; parts of seven used by the counsel for the President, and twenty-one given as delay to the President on his motion.

I do not speak of all this to complain of the Senate, but only that you and the country may see exactly how courteous and how kind you have been to the criminal and to his counsel. Yielding to the request of the counsel who opened you lost half a day. Then the opening consumed parts of two days. On the next day they said they were not quite ready to go through with General Sherman, and you again adjourned earlier than usual. Then we lost almost all of Monday in discussing the questions which were raised. We adjourned early on Monday, as you remember, and on the next day there was an adjournment almost immediately after the Senate met, because of the learned Attorney General. Now, all we ask is that this case may go on.

If it be said that we are hard in our demands that this trial go on, let me contrast for a moment this case with a great State trial in England, at which were present Lord Chief Justice Eyre, Lord Chief Baron McDonald, Baron Hotham, Mr. Justice Buller, Sir Nash Grose, Mr. Justice Lawrence, and others of her Majesty's judges in the trial of Thomas Hardy for treason. There the court sat from 9 o'clock in the morning until 1 o'clock at night, and they thus sat there from Tuesday until Friday night at 1 o'clock, and then, when Mr. Erskine, afterward Lord Chancellor Erskine, asked of that court that they would not come in so early by an hour the next day because he was unwell and wanted time, the court after argument refused it, and would not give him even that hour in which to reflect upon his opening which he was to make, and which occupied nine hours in its delivery, until the jury asked it, and then they gave him but a single hour, although he said upon his honor to the court that every night he had not got to his house until between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning, and he was regularly in court at 9 o'clock on the following morning.

That is the way cases of great consequence are tried in England. That is

the way other courts sit. I am not complaining here, senators, understand me. I am only contrasting the delays given, the kindnesses shown, the courtesies extended in this greatest of all cases, and where the greatest interests are at stake, compared with every other case ever tried elsewhere. The managers are ready. We have been ready; at all hazards and sacrifices we would be ready. We only ask that now the counsel for the President shall be likewise ready, and go on without these interminable delays with which, when the House began this impeachment, the friends of the President there rose up and threatened. You will find such threats in the Globe. Mr. James Brooks, of New York, said, in substance: You can go on with your impeachment, but I warn you that we will make you go through all the forms, and if you go through all the forms we will keep it going until the end of Mr. Johnson's term, and it will be fruitless." Having thus threatened you, senators, I had supposed that you would not allow the threat to be carried out, as it is attempted to be carried out, by these continued delays.

66

Mr. President and Senators, I have thus given you the reasons pressing upon my mind why this delay should not be had; and I admit I have done it with considerable warmth, because I feel warmly. I open no mail of mine that I do not take up an account from the south of some murder, or worse, of some friend of the country. I want these things to stop. Many a man whom I have known standing by my side for the Union I can hear of now only as laid in the cold grave by the assassin's hand. This has stirred my feelings, I admit. The loss of my friends, the loss to the country of those who have stood by it, has, perhaps, very much stirred my heart, so that I have not been able, with that coolness with which judicial proceedings should be carried on, to address you upon this agonizing topic. I say nothing of the threats of assassination made every hour and upon every occasion, even when objection to testimony is made by the managers. I say nothing of the threats made against the lives of the great officers of the Senate and against the managers. We are all free. There is an old Scotch proverb in our favor: "The threatened dog a' lives the longest." We have not the slightest fear of these cowardly menaces; but all these threats, these unseemly libels on our former government, will go away when this man goes out of the White House.

Mr. CONNESS. Mr. President, I offer the following order :

Ordered, That on each day hereafter the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment, shall meet at 11 o'clock a. m.

Mr. SUMNER. I send to the Chair a substitute for that order.

The CHIEF JUSTICE. The Secretary will read the substitute proposed by the senator from Massachusetts.

The Secretary read as follows:

That, considering the public interests which suffer from the delay of this trial, and in pursuance of the order already adopted to proceed with all convenient despatch, the Senate will sit from 10 o'clock in the forenoon to 6 o'clock in the afternoon, with such brief recess as may be ordered.

Mr. TRUMBULL. I rise to a question of order, whether it is in order to consider these propositions to-day under the ruling of the Chair

The CHIEF JUSTICE. They are not in order if anybody objects.

Mr. TRUMBULL. I object to their consideration.

The CHIEF JUSTICE. They will go over until to-morrow.

Mr. EVARTS. Mr. Chief Justice and Senators, I am not aware how much of the address of the honorable manager is appropriate to anything that has proceeded from me. I, at the opening of the court this morning, stated how we might be situated, and added that when that point of time arrived I should submit the matter to the discretion of the Senate. I have never heard such a harangue before in a court of justice; but I cannot say that I may not hear it again in this court. All these delays and the ill consequences seem to press upon the honorable managers except at the precise point of time when some of

their mouths are open occupying your attention with their long harangues. If you will look at the reports of the discussions on questions of evidence, as they appear in the newspapers, while all that we have to say is embraced within the briefest paragraphs, long columns are taken up with the views of the learned managers, and hour after hour is taken up with debates on the production of our evidence by these prolonged discussions, and now twenty minutes by the watch with this harangue of the honorable manager about the Ku-Klux Klan. I have said what I have said to the Senate.

Mr. CAMERON. Mr. President, I should like to inquire whether the word "harangue" be in order here?

Mr. Manager BUTLER. So far as I am concerned it is of no consequence.

Mr. DOOLITTLE. Mr. Chief Justice, I should like to know whether the harangue itself was in order, not the word?

Mr. FERRY. Mr. President, I move that the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment, adjourn.

Mr. SUMNER. I move that the adjournment be until 10 o'clock.

Mr. TRUMBULL. That is not in order.

The CHIEF JUSTICE. It is not in order. The motion to adjourn is, under the rule, to the usual time.

Mr. SUMNER. On that I ask for the
yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were not ordered.

The motion was agreed to, and the Senate, sitting for the trial of the impeachment, adjourned until to-morrow at 12 o'clock.

FRIDAY, April 17, 1868.

The Chief Justice of the United States took the chair.

The usual proclamation having been made by the Sergeant-at-arms, The managers of the impeachment on the part of the House of Representatives and the counsel for the respondent, except Mr. Stanbery, appeared and took the seats assigned to them respectively.

The members of the House of Representatives, as in Committee of the Whole, preceded by Mr. E. B. Washburne, chairman of that committee, and accompanied by the Speaker and Clerk, appeared and were conducted to the seats provided for them.

The CHIEF JUSTICE. The Secretary will read the journal of yesterday's proceedings.

Mr. STEWART. I move that the reading of the journal be dispensed with. The CHIEF JUSTICE. If there be no objection it will be so ordered. The Chair hears none. It is so ordered. During the sitting of yesterday the senator from California [Mr. Conness] offered an order that the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment, meet hereafter at 11 o'clock a. m. That will be before the Senate unless objected to. The Secretary will read the order.

The Secretary read as follows:

Ordered, That on each day hereafter the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment, shall meet at 11 o'clock a. m.

The CHIEF JUSTICE. Does the senator from Massachusetts desire to offer his amendment?

Mr. SUMNER. I did offer it, Mr. President, yesterday.

The CHIEF JUSTICE. The amendment offered by the senator from Massachusetts will be read.

The Secretary read the amendment, as follows:

Strike out all after the word "ordered" and insert:

That considering the public interests which suffer from the delay of this trial, and in pursuance of the order already adopted to proceed with all convenient despatch, the Senate will sit