Submitted to and Passed by the AEU 66th Assembly

The loss of moral leadership in the Presidency is not a situation which any citizen can contemplate with satisfaction, since Americans have always looked to the President of the United States for moral as well as political leadership. This must continue to be so, since political authority in a democracy cannot survive unless it is grounded in a people’s confidence in the credibility of their elected leader.

We believe that the relentless flood of disclosures of wrongdoing, corruption, willful violation of constitutional rights, obstruction of justice, and usurpation of power involving police-state techniques and intrigues, which a distinguished United States Senator has aptly described as revealing a Gestapo mentality, have reached and corroded the moral authority of the President himself. Watergate only symbolizes a much wider and deeper corruption and abuse of authority, which, on the basis of his own statements, implicates Mr. Nixon,

In view of the damage already wrought by his administration to the institutions of free government and democratic ethics, the President should resign. The abuses and corruptions of power which have been uncovered cannot be shunted aside without remedial action.

Therefore, we urge that in the light of the national interest, the President resign immediately, but failing that act, Congress should proceed to impeach.