Thread by @BarbaraJordanTX

Barbara Jordan
Opening Statement on
Articles of Impeachment
7/25/1974
Watergate
"…glorious opportunity of sharing the pain of this inquiry."

"And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution."

"The subjects of its [Articles of Impeachment's] jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men."

"It is wrong, I suggest…that [voting] for [impeachment] means that… member must be convinced that the PRES should be removed from office."

"The Framers confided in the Congress the power if need be, to remove… a President swollen with power and grown tyrannical,…".

"And in the Virginia ratification convention: 'We do not trust our liberty to a particular branch. We need one branch to check the other.'"

"'Prosecutions of impeachments will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community" said Hamilton in the Federalist Papers #65."

"[Woodrow Wilson said of impeachment], 'Indignation so great as to overgrow party interest may secure a conviction; but nothing else can.'"

"Congress has a lot to do… So today we are not being petty. We are trying to be big, because the task we have before us is a big one."

"We're told that that evidence is insufficient. What that recital of the evidence this morning did not include is what the PRES did know…".

"The President DID know that it was Republican money, that it was money from the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, …".

"The committee subpoena [to President Nixon] is outstanding, and if the President wants to supply that material, the committee sits here."

"I stand ready to answer, under oath, pertinent written interrogatories, and to be interviewed under oath by you…at the White House." Nixon

"If the President be connected in any suspicious manner with any person and [grounds exist] that he will shelter him, he may be impeached."

"...PRES met with Mr. Henry Petersen [Asst. AG] [27] times to discuss matters related to Watergate… and…[after] met with [those implicated]…

"Justice Story: 'Impeachment…is intended…where a superior power…is put into operation to protect their rights and rescue their liberties…'".

press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/docum…

"The PRES has made public…assertions…which the evidence will show he knew to be false. Those who 'behave amiss or betray the public trust.'"

"James Madison again at the Constitutional Convention: 'A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.'"

"If … impeachment provision…[won't reach here]…perhaps that 18th-century Constitution should be abandoned to a 20th-century paper shredder!"

"Has the President committed offenses, and [planned, directed, acquiesced] in a course of conduct which the Constitution will not tolerate?"

Rep. Jordan after the vote: “There were tears behind doors and off camera after the vote, from both men and women.” mobile.nytimes.com/1974/07/28/arc…

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