The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-10 00:00:00

THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRE-411)ENT JOHN4ON.

The Times continues to describe the events
which are passing in America as a revolution, tending to
reduce the office of a President, with well defined duties
and responsibilities, to that of a constitutional king bound
to follow the advice of ministers possessing the confidence
of the legislative assembly. Mr. Johnson has been guilty
of the crime of forming an opinion for himself, and as
that opinion does not conform to the sentiments of the
majority of Congress be is to be impeached. The Times
does not believe that the necessary two-thirds of the
Senate will concur in a condemnation of the President
upon the charges brought against him ; but then a consti-
tutional difficulty is in these days a matter of email
concern in the States. If the majority in Con-
gress cannot legally compass their ends, they will
do so by the expression of their own will. Put-
ting in the mouths of the Congress the sophism that a
clause of the constitution is nothing if it bare the way of
the representation of the people, the Tinte4 adds that the
popularity of such reasoning makes the impeachment of
tke President remarkable as evidence of the length to
which the revolution has gone, and a hint of what may
come after. The fate of Mr. Johnson is a trifle compared
with the safeguards of all personal liberty and individual
freedom, which are thus subjected to the unchecked
caprice of a fluctuating majority.
The wisdom and propriety of the impeachment must
depend, the Daily Nears says, on the result of the inquiries
into some of the greatest scandals in Mr. Johnsou'e adminis-
tration now going on. The leaders of Congress are not such
bunglers in the art of politics as to take such a step
as a mere party move. The exasperation which Mr.
Johnson's conduct raised may increase their readiness to
take so serious a course, but they will not do it unless
the beat interests of the country seem to them to de-
mand it. Mr. Johnson will really have only himself to
thank if the counsels of his enemies prevail, and he is
brought to trial. His share in the frightful business at
New Orleans has never been explained, and his indiscri-
minate pardons have subjected his very patriotism to sus-
picion. Nor can he wonder if Congress should attribute
the most serious meaning to his foolish words. That he
seriously contemplated a coup d'erat is generally believed
in both North and South. But the house will not im-
peach him even for the foolish words he used in his
speeches against Congress, and the Senate will assuredly not
find him guilty unless some overt acts of violence or niece
unconstitutional actions are clearly proved against him.
The Star says Mr. Johnson has exercised the veto power
in a manner which would entail upon any constitutional
sovereign who attempted it the loss of his throne.
Although the Civil Rights Bill was passed over his head,
be has repealed, with a stroke of his pen, the general orders
under which the negro population were relieved from the
terror of the whip, and coloured vagrant' were made
amenable to the same laws, and those only, under which
white vagrants are punished. The result is that in the
State of Maryland the old slave masters are flogging their
negroes with characteristic cruelty and zeal, and persons
of colour who have been convicted of petty offences are
openly sold on the auction block as of yore. He boa vetoed
the bill conferring the franchise upon the blacks in the
district of Columbia, where st►te laws have no force, and
where the supreme jurisdiction of Congress is ordained by
the constitution itself.

In the opinion of the Telegraph, Mr. Johnson's accusers
can only accomplish their purpose by revolutionary
violence, and to that they may resort, though in what
precise form no one would venture to predict. Should
Mr. Johnson be ejected from the White House, the Pre.
aident of the Senate would succeed to his office until •
new election could be held. As the Senate chooses its own
president, it would thus be sole muter of the executive
power, and the scheme of government devised by the con-
stitution would then have come to an end in form as well
as substance.