Mr. SUMNER. It is only little more than a year ago that I felt it my duty to characterize a message of the President as “white washing.”. The message represented the condition of things in the rebel States as fair and promising when the prevailing evidence was directly the other way. Of course the message was “whitewashing, ” and this was a mild term for such a document. But you do not forget how certain Senators, horror struck at this plainness, leaped forward to vindicate the President. Yesterday some of these same Senators, horror struck again, leaped forward again in the same task. Time has shown that I was right on the former occasion. If anybody doubts that I was right yesterday I commend him to time. He will not be obliged to wait long. Meanwhile I shall insist always upon complete freedom of debate, and I shall exercise it. John Milton, in his glorious aspi rations, said, “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely above all liberties.” Thank Go, now that slave masters have been driven from this Chamber, such is the liberty of an American Senator! Of course there can be no citizen of a Republic too high. for exposure, as there can be none too low for protection. The exposure of the powerful and the protection of the weak; these are not only invaluable liberties but commanding duties. At last the country is opening its eyes to the actual condition of things. Already it sees that AndrewJohnson, who came to supreme power by a bloody accident, has become the successor of JeffersonDavis in the spirit by which he is governed and in the mischief he is inflicting on his country. It sees the President of the Rebellion revived in the POTUS It sees that the violence which took the life of his illustrious predecessor is now by his perverse complicity extending throughout the rebel States, making all who love the Union its victims and filling the land with tragedy. It sees that the war upon the faithful Unionists is still continued under his powerful auspices, without any distinction of color, so that all, both white and black, are sac rificed. It sees that he is the minister of discord, and not the minister of peace. It sees that, so long as his influence prevails, there is small chance of tranquillity, security, or reconciliation; that the restoration of prosperity in the rebel States, so much longed for, must be ar rested; that the business of the whole country must be embarrassed, and that those conditions on which a sound currency depends must be postponed. All these things the country now sees. But indignation assumes the form of judgment when it is seen also that this incred ible, unparalleled, and far reaching mischief. 2nd only to the Rebellion itself, of which it is a continuation, is invigorated and extended through a plain usurpation. I know that the President sometimes quotes the Constitution and professes to carry out its behests. But this pretension is of little value. A French historian, whose fame as a writer is eclipsed by his greater fame as an orator, who has held important posts, and now in advancin years is still eminent in public life, has use words which aptly characterize an attempt like that of the President. I quote from the history of M. Thiers, while describing what is known as the resolution of the 18th Brumaire: “When anyone wishes to make a revolution or a counter revolution it is necessaryalways to disguise the illegality as much as possible and to this end to use the terms of the Constitution in order to it, destroy and also the members of a Government in order to overturn it.” In this spirit the President has acted. He has bent Constitution, laws, and men to his arbi trary will, and has even invoked the DeclarIndep for the overthrow of those Equal Rights which it so grandly proclaims. n holding up AndrewJohnson to judgment, I do not dwell on his open exposure of himself in a condition of i.intoxication while he was taking his oath of office; nor do I dwell on the maudlin speeches by which he f. has dethe country as it was never degraded efore; nor do I hearken to any reports of pardons sold, or of personal corruption. This is not the case against him, as I deem it my duty to present it in this argument. These things are bad, very bad; but they might not, in the opinion of some Senators, justify us on the present occasion. In other words, the might not be a sufficient reason for the amendment which I have moved. But there is a reason which is ample. The President has usurped the powers of Congress on a colossal scale, and he has employed these usurped powers in fomenting the rebel spirit and awakening anew the dying fires of the rebellion. Though the Executive, he has rapaciously seized the powers of the Legislative and made himself a whole congress in defiance of a cardinal principle of republican government that each branch must act for itself without assuming the powers of the other; and, in the exercise of these illegit imate powers, he has become a terror to the E and a support to the wicked. This is is great and unpardonable offense, for which history must condemn him if you do not. He is a usurper, through whom infinite wrong has been done to his country. He is a usurper, who, promising to be a Moses, has become a Pharaoh. Do you ask for evidence? It is found in public acts which are beyond question. It is already written in the history of of our conntry. And now in the maintenance of his usurpation he has employed the power of removal from office. Some, who would not become the partisans of his tyranny he has, according to. own language, “. out.” Others are left, but silenced by this menace and the fate of their associates. Wherever any vacancy occurs, whether in the loyal or the rebel States, it is filled by the partisans of his usurpation. Other vacancies are created to provide for these partisans. I need not add that just in proportion as we sanction such nominations or ail to arrest them, according to the measure of our power, we become parties to his usurpation. Here I am brought directly to the practical application of this simple statement. I have i.said that the duty of the hour was in protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen against the President. Surely this cannot be doubted. The 1st duty of a Government is protection. The crowning glory of a Republic is that it leaves no man, however humble, without protection. Show me a man exposed to wrong and I show you an occasion for the exercise of all the power that God and the Constitution have given you. It will not do to say that the cases are too numerous, or that the remedy cannot be applied without interfering with a system handed down from our fathers, or worse still, that you have little sympathy with this suffering. This will not do. You must apply the remedy, or fail in duty. Especially must you apply it when, as on the present occasion, this wrong is part of an enormous usurpation in the interest of recent Rebellion. The question then recurs, are you ready to apply the remedy, according to the measure of your powers? The necessity of this remedy may be seen in the rebel States, and also in the loyal States, for the usurpation is felt in both. If you look at the rebel States, you will see everywhere the triumph of Presidential tyranny. There is not a mail which does not bring letters without number supplicating the exercise of all the powers of Congress against the President is not a newspaper which does not exhibit evidence that you are already tardy in this work of recessity. There is not a wind from that suffering region which is not freighted with voices of distress. And yet you hesitate. I shall not be led aside to consider the full remedy for this usurpation; for it is not my habit to travel out of the strict line of debate. Therefore, I confine myself to the bill now under consideration, which is applicable alike to the loyal and the rebel States. This bill has its origin in what I have already called the special duty of the hour, which is the protection of loyal and patriotic citizens against the President. In what I have already said I have shown the necessity of this protection. But the brutal language which the President has employed shows the spirit in which he has acted. The Senfrom Indiana, [Mr. HBNDRICKs, whose judgment could not apF. this brutality, doubted if the President adused it. Let me settle this question. Here is the National Intelligencer, always indulgent to the President. In its number for 13th of September last it thus reports what our Chief Magistrate said in a speech at StLouis: “I believe that one set of men have enjoyed the emoluments of office long enough, and they should let another portion of the people have a chance, [Cheers] How are these men to be got out, [a voice Kick 'em out, ' cheers and laughter, unless your Executive can o them out unless you can reach them through the President? Congress says he shall not turn them out, and they are trying to passlaws to prevent it being done. Well, let me say to you if you will stand by me in this"action fcheersj if you will stand by me in trying to give the people a fair chance to have soldiers and citizens to participate in theseoffices Godbe willing, I will kick them out; I will kick themout just as fast as I cheering] can.” [Great such language as this is without precedent. Coming from. President, it is a declaration of “policy” which it is your duty to counter act; and in this duty you must make a precedent, if need be. The bill now before the Senate arises from this necessity. Had Abraham Lincoln been spared to us there would have been no occasion for this bill, which the Senfrom Vermont [Mr. EDMUNDs] has shaped with so much care, and now presses so earnestly. It is a bill arising from the exigency of the hour. As such it is to be j. it does not meet the whole case. Undertaking to give protection, it gives it to a few only, instead of the many. It provides against the removal, appointment, or employment of persons whose offices, according to existing law and Constitution, are held by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Its special object is to vindicate the power of the Senate over the offices committed to it according to existing law and Constitution. Thus vindicating the power of the Senate it does something indirectly for the protection of the citizen. In this respect it is a beneficent measure, and I shall be glad to vote for it. The amendment which I have moved goes further in the same direction. It provides that all agents and officers now appointed by the President, or by the head of a dept, shall be appointed only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and it further proceeds to vacate all such appointments made since 1st July last past, so as in a certain measure to arrest the recent process of “kicking out.” This proposition is simple enough; and I insist that it is necessary, unless you are willing to leave fellow citizens without protection against tyranny. Really the case is so plain that I do not like to argue it, and yet you will pardon me if I advert to certain objections which have been made. . have been told that the number of persons it would bring before the Senate is such that it would clog and embarrass the public business; in other words, that we have not time to deal with so many cases. This is a strange argument. Because the victims are numerous, therefore, we are to fold our hands and let the sacrifice proceed. But I insist that just in proportion to the number is the urgency of your duty. Every victim has a voice, and when these voices count by 1000s you have no right to turn away and say, “these are too numerous for the attention of thosenate.” This is my answer to the objection founded on numbers. But this is not all. You did not shrink during the war from the numerous nominations of military officers, counting by1,000s; nor did you shrink from the numerous nominations of naval officers, counting by1,000s. The power" over these nominations you never reaxed, and I know well you never will relax. You know that, even if unable to consider carefully every case, yet the power over them enables you to interpose your veto on any improper nomination. The power of the senate is a warning against tyranny in the executive. But it is difficult to see any strong reason for this power in the case of the Army and Navy which is not applicable also to civil officers. This I should say in tranquil times; but there is another reason peculiar to the hour., Even if in tranquil times I were disposed to leave the appointing power as it is, I am not disposed now. Then, again, we are told that we must not abandon the system of our fathers. I have already answered this objection precisely, in saying that, whatever may have been the system of the fathers, it is inadequate for the present hour. But I am not satisfied that the proposition moved by me is inconsistent with the system of the fathers. The officers of the internalrevenue. did not exist then, and the inferior officers of the customs were few in number and with small emoluments. But all district attornies and marshals, even if their salary was no more than $200, were subject to the confirmation of Senate.