_Resolved_, That the President, in the late Executive proceedings in
relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and
power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in derogation of
both.


Having had the honor, through the voluntary suffrages of the American
people, to fill the office of President of the United States during
the period which may be presumed to have been referred to in this
resolution, it is sufficiently evident that the censure it inflicts was
intended for myself. Without notice, unheard and untried, I thus find
myself charged on the records of the Senate, and in a form hitherto
unknown in our history, with the high crime of violating the laws and
Constitution of my country.

It can seldom be necessary for any department of the Government, when
assailed in conversation or debate or by the strictures of the press or
of popular assemblies, to step out of its ordinary path for the purpose
of vindicating its conduct or of pointing out any irregularity or
injustice in the manner of the attack; but when the Chief Executive
Magistrate is, by one of the most important branches of the Government
in its official capacity, in a public manner, and by its recorded
sentence, but without precedent, competent authority, or just cause,
declared guilty of a breach of the laws and Constitution, it is due to
his station, to public opinion, and to a proper self-respect that the
officer thus denounced should promptly expose the wrong which has been
done.

In the present case, moreover, there is even a stronger necessity for
such a vindication. By an express provision of the Constitution, before