shall be registered unless such board shall decide that he is entitled thereto; and such board shall also have power to examine, under oath, (to be administered by any member of such board,) any one touching the qualification of any person claiming registration; but in every case of refusal by the board to register an applicant, and in every case of striking his name from the list as hereinafter provided, the board shall make a note or memorandum, which shall be returned with the registration list to the commanding general of the district, setting forth the grounds of such refusal or such striking from the list: Provided, That no person shall be disqualified as member of any board of registration by reason of race or color.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the true intent and meaning of the oath prescribed in said supplementary act is, (among other things,) that no person who has been a member of the legislature of any State, or who has held any executive or judicial office in any State, whether he has taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States or not, and whether he was holding such office at the commencement of the rebellion, or had held it before, and who has afterwards engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof, is entitled to be registered or to vote; and the words "executive or judicial office in any State" in said oath mentioned shall be construed to include all civil offices created by law for the administration of any general law of a State, or for the administration of justice.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the time for completing the original registration provided for in said act may, in the discretion of the commander of any district, be extended to the first day of October, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven; and the boards of registration shall have power, and it shall be their duty, commencing fourteen days prior to any election under said act, and upon reasonable public notice of the time and place thereof, to revise, for a period of five days, the registration lists, and upon being satisfied that any person not entitled thereto has been registered, to strike the name of such person

from the list, and such person shall not be allowed to vote. And such board shall also, during the same period, add to such registry the names of all persons who at that time possess the qualifications required by said act who have not been already registered; and no person shall, at any time, be entitled to be registered or to vote by reason of any executive pardon or amnesty for any act or thing which, without such pardon or amnesty, would disqualify him from registration or voting.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That section four of said last-named act shall be construed to authorize the commanding general named therein, whenever he shall deem it needful, to remove any member of a board of registration and to appoint another in his stead, and to fill any vacancy in such board.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That all members of said boards of registration and all persons hereafter elected or appointed to office in said military districts, under any so-called State or municipal authority, or by detail or appointment of the district commanders, shall be required to take and to subscribe the oath of office prescribed by law for officers of the United States.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That no district commander or member of the board of registration, or any of the officers or appointees acting under them, shall be bound in his action by any opinion of any civil officer of the United States.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That all provisions of this act and of the acts to which this is supplementary shall be construed liberally, to the end that all the intents thereof may be fully and perfectly carried out.

No. 65. Act suspending Reduction of the Currency

February 4, 1868

A BILL to prohibit the further reduction of the currency was introduced in the House, November 21, 1867, by Ebon C. Ingersoll of Illinois, and referred to the Committee of Ways and Means. December 5 the committee was discharged from further consideration of the bill, and a new bill was reported by

Schenck of Ohio, and recommitted. The bill was reported without amendment on the 7th and passed, the vote being 127 to 32, 28 not voting. A substitute amendment was agreed to by the Senate January 9, 1868, and on the 15th the bill with further amendments passed, the vote being 33 to 4, 16 not voting. The bill received its final form from a conference committee. The bill was presented to the President January 23, and became law February 4 under the ten days rule.

REFERENCES.

Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XV, 34. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 40th Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The financial situation was discussed at especial length in the Senate. See also Senate Report 4.

AN ACT to suspend further Reduction of the Currency.

Be it enacted That from and after the passage of this act, the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury to make any reduction of the currency, by retiring or cancelling United States notes, shall be, and is hereby, suspended; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the cancellation and destruction of mutilated United States notes, and the replacing of the same with notes of the same character and amount.

No. 66. Articles of Impeachment

March 2-3, 1868

DECEMBER 17, 1866, James M. Ashley of Ohio moved in the House to suspend the rules for the purpose of reporting from the Committee on Territories a resolution for the appointment of a select committee "to inquire whether any acts have been done by any officer of the Government of the United States which, in contemplation of the Constitution, are high crimes or misdemeanors, and whether said acts were designed or calculated to overthrow, subvert, or corrupt the Government of the United States, or any department thereof." The vote was 90 to 49, but two-thirds being necessary, the motion was lost. January 7, 1867, resolutions for the impeachment of President Johnson were offered by Benjamin F. Loan and John R. Kelso of Missouri, and referred, respectively, to the Committee on Reconstruction and the Committee on the Judiciary. On the same day Ashley, as a question of privilege, impeached Johnson of high crimes and misdemeanors, charging him "with a usurpation of power and violation of law" in having corruptly used the powers of ap

pointment, pardon, and veto, "corruptly disposed of public property of the United States," and "corruptly interfered in elections, and committed acts which, in contemplation of the Constitution, are high crimes and misdemeanors." By a vote of 108 to 39 the charges were referred to the Committee on the Judiciary for investigation. February 28 the committee reported that, from lack of time, it had reached no conclusion. March 7 a resolution submitted by Ashley directed the continuance of the investigation, and on the 29th, on motion of Sidney Clarke of Kansas, the committee was requested to report at the first meeting of the House after the recess. November 25 George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts submitted the majority report of the committee. The report closed with a resolution that the President "be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors." December 7, by a vote of 57 to 108, the resolution was disagreed to. The evidence taken by the Committee on the Judiciary, together with the correspondence between Johnson and Grant, was referred to the Committee on Reconstruction. February 21, 1868, Stanton communicated to the House Johnson's order removing him from the office of Secretary of War; this, with a resolution for the impeachment of the President, was also referred to the Committee on Reconstruction. On the 22d the committee reported a resolution recommending impeachment, which was agreed to on the 24th by a vote of 128 to 47. Committees were appointed to prepare the articles of impeachment and to notify the Senate. The action of the House was communicated to the Senate on the 25th. Nine articles of impeachment were agreed to by the House March 2, two additional articles being approved the following day. On the 4th the articles were read to the Senate, and on the 6th an order was entered directing the issuance of a summons to the President to file an answer to the charges, the order being made returnable March 13. A request for more time in which to prepare an answer secured an extension to the 23d. On that date the answer of the President was read. A request for thirty days in which to complete preparations for the trial was denied, the vote being 12 to 41. The trial began March 30, Chief Justice Chase presiding, and continued until May 12. May 16 a vote was taken on Article XI of the charges. The vote was 35" guilty," 19 "not guilty." Votes on Articles II and III, May 26, showed the same result, whereupon the court, by a vote of 34 to 16, adjourned sine die. Judgment of acquittal was entered on the three articles on which a vote was taken.

For convenience, the votes on the adoption of the several articles are given in brackets after each article in the text following.

REFERENCES. - Text in House Journal, 40th Cong., 2d Sess., 440-465. For the proceedings prior to the trial see the House and Senate Journals and the Cong. Globe; for the trial see the Senate Journal, Appendix, and the Cong. Globe, Supplement. The report of November 25, 1867, is House Report 7, 40th Cong., Ist Sess. On the Stanton-Grant episode see House Exec. Docs. 57, 149,

168 and 183, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. Extracts from Johnson's interviews and speeches are given in McPherson, Reconstruction, 44-63, 127–143. The early impeachment testimony is in House Report 7, 40th Cong., Ist Sess.; for the articles and fuller testimony see House Misc. Doc. 91, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. On the conduct of the impeachment see House Reports 74 and 75, Senate Report 59, and Senate Misc. Doc. 43, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. Important general references are De Witt, Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson; Foster, Commentaries on the Constitution, I, 546-564; Dunning, Essays, 253-303; Storey, Sumner, chap. 19; McCall, Thaddeus Stevens, chaps. 15 and 18; Sherman, Recollections, I, chap. 19; Cox, Three Decades, chap. 32; Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, II, chap. 14.

ARTICLE I. That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, on the twenty-first day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, at Washington, in the District of Columbia, unmindful of the high duties of his office, of his oath of office, and of the requirement of the Constitution that he should take care that the laws be faithfully executed, did unlawfully, and in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, issue an order in writing for the removal of Edwin M. Stanton from the office of Secretary for the Department of War, said Edwin M. Stanton having been theretofore duly appointed and commissioned, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, as such Secretary, and said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, on the twelfth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, and during the recess of said Senate, having suspended by his order Edwin M. Stanton from said office, and within twenty days after the first day of the next meeting of said Senate, that is to say, on the twelfth day of December in the year last aforesaid, having reported to said Senate such suspension with the evidence and reasons for his action in the case and the name of the person designated to perform the duties of such office temporarily until the next meeting of the Senate, and said Senate thereafterwards on the thirteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, having duly considered the evidence and reasons reported by said Andrew Johnson for