Abraham Lincoln to the House of Representatives

on

Possible Impeachment of President Clinton

No oath is required when truths are self-evident.

My sorrow comes that I must once again say, with unshaken faith in the Constitution,
that extraordinary and fundamental basis of this nation,
that a "house divided against itself cannot stand".

I said - then - that I believed 'this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free'.

I say - now - that this government cannot endure permanently half lie and half truth.

I, too, have taken the oath of Presidential Office.
I am today reminded that when I first took the oath, on March 4th, 1861, I said,
"I take the official oath today with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws
by any hypercritical rules."

If you believe your President has not lied, you must vote against his being impeached on the charges brought against him.

If you believe your President has lied under oath...
and...
If you believe your children must know that lying under oath is wrong...
and...
If you believe no American is above the laws of this great country...

Then you must vote to impeach your President.

I could only so vote, in and with great sorrow, as a member of this House.

I would do so, however, without despair.
I know that if this House votes to impeach, to charge this President with breaking the law of this country,
the evidence supporting this vote must and will be scrupulously examined again in trial by the Senate.

I believe these Senators, each also sworn to uphold the Constitution, each honoring the office of Senator,
each honoring the office of the Presidency, and each honoring the oath administered by the Chief Justice for this trial,
will vote to acquit or convict as called for by the evidence presented.

The simple self-evident truth, which requires no oath to assert,
is - and must remain - that no President is above the law of this land.

There is no, and can be no, moral, political or legal alternative to obtaining a verdict either of innocence or guilt.

The world - and your children - will certainly note and long remember what you do here.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

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to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life."
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