Threatened With Impeachment, Nixon Resigns (1983)

before millions of Americans in the television audience. We have reached a moment when we are ready to debate resolutions, whether or not the committee on the Judiciary should recommend that the House of Representatives adopt articles calling for the impeachment of Richard M. Nixon, make no mistake about it. This is a turning point, whatever we decide. The President's defenders were making their last arguments. Charles Wiggins, a California Republican, felt that the Democrats were moving too fast, not giving enough attention to the evidence. But it would certainly not on my conscience if I had a preconceived notion about his impeachability prior to the receipt of evidence in this case. This was an occasion when obscure politicians rose above themselves in the glare of the impeachment

debate. Few members of the House Committee were as famous as any senator. Few had reputations for statesmanship. Many were junior members of Congress identified with the concerns of provincial politics. But as the time-devote approached and the obscure politicians spoke out, there was an eloquence in them and a sense of the Constitution. This document is probably the world's best written exposition of free government. It is the document under which this country and its people have prospered from the founding of this republic. We are here to make this Constitution a vital document for all of our people and to end the abuse of power, the obstruction of justice that has gone on to the detriment of constitutional government.

The crucial Republican votes were shifting against the President. How well butler Virginia, conservative, who owed his election to Nixon, spoken sadness and in anger. In short, a power appears to have corrupted. It is a sad chapter in American history, but I cannot condone what I have heard, I cannot excuse it, and I cannot and will not stand still for it. If we fail to impeach, we have condoned and left unpunished, a course of conduct totally inconsistent with the reasonable expectations of the American people. Their flowers, a conservative Democrat from Alabama with an American flag in his lapel, was in emotional pain, but he was going to vote for impeachment. I wake up nights, at least on those nights I have been able to go to sleep lately. Wondering if this could not be some sort of dream, impeached the President of the United States. But unfortunately, this is no bad dream. It is the terrible truth that will be upon us here in this committee in the next few days.

Barbara Jordan, a Texas Democrat, spoke of the Constitution from a special perspective. Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the preamble to the Constitution of the United States. We, the people, it's a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed on the 17th of September in 1787, I was not included in that we, the people. I felt somehow, for many years, that George Washington and 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. My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is completed as total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution. James Mann, a Democrat from South Carolina.

It isn't the presidency that is in jeopardy from us. We would serve, we would strive to strengthen and protect the presidency. But if there be no accountability, another president will feel free to do as he chooses. But the next time there may be no watchmen in the night. On July 27, the Judiciary Committee voted on Article I of the Resolution of Impeachment of Richard Nixon, all those in favor signify by saying I, all those opposed, no. Mr. Flour, I, Mr. Mann, I, Mr. Jordan, I, Mr. Wiggins, no, Mr. Butler, I, Mr. Hutchinson, no, Mr. Lott, no, Mr. Sarbanes, I, Mr. Rodino, I. 87 members of voted I, 11 members of voted no.

And pursuant to the resolution, Article I, that resolution is adopted and will be reported to the House. Just before the Judiciary Committee voted, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the president must give up the tapes. On August 5, the crucial tape Nixon had withheld. The so-called smoking gun was public knowledge. It made clear that a week after the Watergate break-in, the president was participating personally in the cover-up conspiracy. Richard Nixon was finished, and his friends in Congress went to the White House to tell him so. Even as defenders on the Judiciary Committee soon agreed that the president deserved to be removed from office. And on August 8, Richard Millhouse Nixon, 37th President of the United States, resigned. Therefore, I shall resign the presidency of factis that noon tomorrow. Vice President 4 will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office. The helicopter soon would take him away.

He spoke to his staff one last time when you take some knocks, some disappointments. Then sadness comes, because only if you've been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself. And will, for the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and depend, preserve, protect, and