经典英文演讲100篇13-StatementontheArticlesofImpeachment.doc

1、Barbara Jordan: Statement on the Articles of Impeachment“If the impeachment provision in the Constitution of the United States will not reach the offenses charged here, then perhaps that 18th century Constitution should be abandoned to a 20th century paper shredder.“Mr. Chairman, I join my colleague

2、 Mr. Rangel in thanking you for giving the junior members of this committee the glorious opportunity of sharing the pain of this inquiry. Mr. Chairman, you are a strong man, and it has not been easy but we have tried as best we can to give you as much assistance as possible. Earlier today, we heard

3、the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, “We, the people“. Its a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed, on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that “We, the people“. I felt somehow for many years that George Washington an

4、d Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in “We, the people“. Today I am an inquisitor. An hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that I feel right now. My

5、 faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.“Who can so properly be the inquisitors for the nation as the representatives of the nation themselves?“ (

6、Federalist, no. 65). The subject of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men.“ That is what we are talking about. In other words, the jurisdiction comes from the abuse of violation of some public trust. It is wrong, I suggest, it is a misreading of the Cons

7、titution for any member here to assert that for a member to vote for an article of impeachment means that that member must be convinced that the president should be removed from office. The Constitution doesnt say that. The powers relating to impeachment are an essential check in the hands of the bo

8、dy of the legislature against and upon the encroachments of the executive. The division between the two branches of the legislature, the House and the Senate, assigning to the one the right to accuse and to the other the right to judge, the framers of this Constitution were very astute. They did not

9、 make the accusers and the judges the same person.We know the nature of impeachment. We have been talking about it awhile now. “It is chiefly designed for the president and his high ministers“ to somehow be called into account. It is designed to “bridle“ the executive if he engages in excesses. “It

10、is designed as a method of national inquest into the public men.“ The framers confined in the congress the power if need be, to remove the president in order to strike a delicate balance between a president swollen with power and grown tyrannical, and preservation of the independence of the executiv

11、e. The nature of impeachment is a narrowly channeled exception to the separation-of-powers maxim; the federal convention of 1787 said that.The framers limited impeachment to high crimes and misdemeanors and discounted and opposed the term “maladministration.“ “It is to be used only for great misdeme

12、anors,“ so it was said in the North Carolina ratification convention. And in the Virginia ratification convention: “We do not trust our liberty to a particular branch. We need one branch to check the others.“The North Carolina ratification convention: “No one need be afraid that officers who commit

13、oppression will pass with immunity.“ “Prosecutions of impeachments will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community,“ said Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, no. 65. “And to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused.“ I do not mean political parties in th

14、at sense.The drawing of political lines goes to the motivation behind impeachment; but impeachment must proceed within the confines of the constitutional term “high crimes and misdemeanors.“ Of the impeachment process, it was Woodrow Wilson who said that “nothing short of the grossest offenses again

15、st the plain law of the land will suffice to give them speed and effectiveness. Indignation so great as to overgrow party interest may secure a conviction; but nothing else can.“Common sense would be revolted if we engaged upon this process for petty reasons. Congress has a lot to do: Appropriation,

16、 Tax Reform, Health Insurance, Campaign Finance Reform, Housing, Environmental Protection, Energy Sufficiency, Mass Transportation. Pettiness cannot be allowed to stand in the face of such overwhelming problems. So today we are not being petty. We are trying to be big because the task we have before

17、 us is a big one.This morning, in a discussion of the evidence, we were told that the evidence which purports to support the allegations of misuse of the CIA by the President is thin. We are told that that evidence is insufficient. What that recital of the evidence this morning did not include is wh

18、at the President did know on June the 23rd, 1972.The President did know that it was Republican money, that it was money from the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, which was found in the possession of one of the burglars arrested on June the 17th. What the President did know on the 23rd

19、 of June was the prior activities of E. Howard Hunt, which included his participation in the break-in of Daniel Ellsbergs psychiatrist, which included Howard Hunts participation in the Dita Beard ITT affair, which included Howard Hunts fabrication of cables designed to discredit the Kennedy administ

20、ration.We were further cautioned today that perhaps these proceedings ought to be delayed because certainly there would be new evidence forthcoming from the president of the United States. There has not even been an obfuscated indication that this committee would receive any additional materials fro

21、m the President. The committee subpoena is outstanding, and if the president wants to supply that material, the committee sits here. The fact is that on yesterday, the American people waited with great anxiety for eight hours, not knowing whether their president would obey an order of the Supreme Co

22、urt of the United States.At this point, I would like to juxtapose a few of the impeachment criteria with some of actions the President has engaged in. Impeachment criteria: James Madison, from the Virginia ratification convention. “If the president be connected in any suspicious manner with any pers

23、on and there be grounds to believe that he will shelter him, he may be impeached.“We have heard time and time again that the evidence reflects the payment to defendants of money. The president had knowledge that these funds were being paid and these were funds collected for the 1972 presidential cam

24、paign. We know that the president met with Mr. Henry Petersen twenty-seven times to discuss matters related to Watergate and immediately thereafter met with the very persons who were implicated in the information Mr. Petersen was receiving and transmitting to the president. The words are “if the pre

25、sident be connected in any suspicious manner with any person and there be grounds to believe that he will shelter that person, he may be impeached.“Justice Story: “Impeachment is intended for occasional and extraordinary cases where a superior power acting for the whole people is put into operation

26、to protect their rights and rescue their liberties from violations.“We know about the Huston plan. We know about the break-in of the psychiatrists office. We know that there was absolute complete direction in August 1971 when the president instructed Ehrlichman to “do whatever is necessary.“ This in

27、struction led to a surreptitious entry into Dr. Fieldings office.“Protect their rights.“ “Rescue their liberties from violation.“The South Carolina ratification convention impeachment criteria: those are impeachable “who behave amiss or betray their public trust.“Beginning shortly after the Watergat

28、e break-in and continuing to the present time, the president has engaged in a series of public statements and actions designed to thwart the lawful investigation by government prosecutors. Moreover, the president has made public announcements and assertions bearing on the Watergate case which the ev

29、idence will show he knew to be false. These assertions, false assertions, impeachable, those who misbehave. Those who “behave amiss or betray their public trust.“James Madison again at the Constitutional Convention: “A president is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.“The Constitu

30、tion charges the president with the task of taking care that the laws be faithfully executed, and yet the president has counseled his aides to commit perjury, willfully disregarded the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, concealed surreptitious entry, attempted to compromise a federal judge while pub

31、licly displaying his cooperation with the processes of criminal justice.“A president is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.“If the impeachment provision in the Constitution of the United States will not reach the offenses charged here, then perhaps that 18th century Constitution

32、should be abandoned to a 20th century paper shredder. Has the president committed offenses, and planned, and directed, and acquiesced in a course of conduct which the Constitution will not tolerate? Thats the question. We know that. We know the question. We should now forthwith proceed to answer the question. It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.