Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 14.pdf/348

 yonathan R. Arnold. "The power of impeachment is, indeed, a tremendous one, and may not inaptly be compared to Goliath's sword, kept in the temple, never to be used but on great occasions. It is, indeed, no trivial cause that will justify the State to arrest one of its officers, endowed for a period with the ad ministration of a portion of the sovereignty, and in the exercise of its functions, and to arraign him before you as a culprit. And if you will recur to the history of our fatherland from which we have derived this proceeding, you will find but too many most solemn illustrations of the truth of these remarks. You will find in but too many instances in its mad spirit that it has confounded the innocent with the guilty — you will find in but too many instances that it has sacrificed illustrious victims to the spirit of relentless persecution — you will find in but too many instances that it has poured out the blood of patriots as an atonement to the demon spirit of party — you will find but too many instances of oppression, of cruelty, and of foul injustice, that would extort from any mind the con cession that it is, indeed, a tremendous power. And even in our own land, where the safeguards of law are so well thrown around, not only the private citizen, but the public officer, it is still a fearful power. It speaks in the name and with the potential voice of the people. It commands all the resources, energies, and treasure of the gov ernment. It enlists all the genius and tal ent and eloquence of counsel, quickened, it may be, by a sense of malevolence, and in spired, it may be, with the love of fame. It may throw around the respondent a net work of circumstances, and of proof that almost baffle explanation. It may kindle around his devoted head a blaze of preju dice and of passion, which may, for the moment, swerve reason from its throne, and

309

enfeeble the power of truth; and the victim alone and helpless, may, day after day, be the object of ridicule, of contempt, and of scorn, and he must seal his lips in reveren tial silence, and if, perchance he sheds a tear over the mistakes, the falsehoods or the malice of his accusers, the foul accusation follows him through the streets, that that tear which anguish has wrung from his eye, is but the tear of dissimulation, or of con fessed guilt. But I tell you that though you may torture the victim, he is not wholly within your power. Neither his life nor his reputation are within your grasp. Thank God his accusers are not his judges; but to this body — to this Court — cool, deliber ate and independent — to this Court, made up of the intelligence, and the wisdom, and the independence of the State, he now ap peals with unshaken confidence, and with manly courage to hurl back the accusations of the prosecution, and to vindicate his in nocence before the world." With such an impassioned introduction, the interest of the Senators was at once aroused, and their attention was held throughout his masterly presentation of his client's case. A large part of Mr. Arnold's opening, was given up to a discussion of the legal phases of the case, to a consideration of courts of impeachment, to a definition of terms, to the nature and degree of proof re quired in order to convict, and to other purely legal questions, making his argu ment to the average layman admittedly prosy and dry. But Mr. Arnold was able to say something worth listening to. Even his consideration of legal questions and terms kept the Senators interested. His discussion of the term impeachment, as it is used in the Constitution of the United States and of the several States in the Union, its origin, history and definition; of what officers are impeachable under the Constitution; of what