leave-we

Updated: May 9, 2025

Bat after a session of the Committee on Reconstruction, hardly an hour in length, violating an express rule of this House by sitting during the session-for Rule 72 provides that no committee shall sit during the session of the House without special leave-we have been summoned upon a very partial submission of facts, without any comprehension, in reality, of the charges which are made against the President of they United States, upon a new indictment, in a new form once more, and in a more alarming manner than ever, in this but a partial Congress, representing but a section of a portion of the people-in my judgment not representing the people of the United States at allto act as a grand jury, with a large portion of that grand jury excluded from the juryroom here; and suddenly, impromptu perhaps, a vote is to be forced this very day-to impeach the President of the United States!

Edmund G. (Edmund Gibson) Ross - History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, by the House of Representatives, and his trial by the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors in office, 1868