But he resigned, and his resignation was accepted,
after the discovery of his misconduct, before the proceedings
of impeachment were inaugurated. The whole struggle was over
the question of the Constitutional right of the Senate to
convict a public officer on impeachment proceedings instituted
after he had left office. Upon that question I made a careful
and elaborate argument. A majority of the Senate (37 to 25)
were for sustaining the proceedings. But the Senators who
thought the Senate had no jurisdiction to enter a judgment
of guilty when the proceedings were commenced after the person
left office, deemed themselves constrained to vote Not Guilty
as the only mode of giving that opinion effect.
So General Belknap was acquitted for the want of the two-
thirds vote for his conviction. Every Democrat voted for
conviction except Mr. Eaton of Connecticut. The following
Republicans voted for conviction: Booth, Cameron of Pennsylvania,
Dawes, Edmunds, Hitchcock, Mitchell, Morrill, Oglesby, Robertson,
Sargent, Sherman, and Wadleigh.
It is difficult to believe that the Senators who voted for
acquittal were not, perhaps unconsciously, influenced by the
desire to shield a political associate from punishment.
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