The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-26 00:00:00

MAMMA 14. ADDMOILL.]

AMERICA.

(REITTER'S TELEGRAM.)

The Inman steamer Etna arrived at Queenstown
at 1 p.m. yesterday, with the mails, 300,000 dots.,
and 1,500/. in specie, and 30 cabin passengers.
She proceeded at 1.20 p.m. for Liverpool.

(Per the Etna.)

NNW YORK, Du. 14.

It is reported that President Johnson has sent
a message to the Senate, assigning the following
reasons for the removal of Mr. Stanton :—The lack
of proper respect -shown by the Secretary, who
attempted, in defiance of the President, to retain
office under the provisions of the Tenure of Office
Bill, which Mr. Stanton, with the rest of the Cabinet,
had previously denounced as unconstitutional.
Furthermore, he says that Mr. Stanton was the
cause of the New Orleans riots, by withholding from
, the President the information that the Federal
Commander at New Orleans asked for special in-
structions relative to the anticipated riot. It is re-
ported that President Johnson further states that
, Mr. Stanton's successor has already saved the
country millions of dollars, and that the Cabinet
are now entirely harmonious in reference to the
; reconstruction policy.
IThe herald states that Mr. Stevens has an-
nounced that he will introduce a bill to Congress
providing loyal provisional governments for the
Southern States. A resolution directing the mili-
tary committee to inquire into the expediency of a
further reduction of the army has passed the House
of Representatives unanimously.
The Virginia Convention has memoralized Con-
gress to continue the Freedmen's bureau. The
Convention has recommended the removal of the
present State officials in Virginia.
The Virginia Conservative Convention at Rich-
mond has passed a resolution declaring this to
be a white man's government, and pledging the
people of Virginia to perform all their constitu-
tional duties on their restoration to the Union.

The Union Loyal League of Alabama has
adopted a resolution declaring that the new con-
stitution of Alabama, framed by the State Con-
vention, is an infamous fraud, tending to debase
the white and destroy the black race.
The Conservative negroes at Montgomery, in Ala-
bama, hold a meeting, where resolutions were passed
opposing the proposed constitution.
The Tennessee Legislature has passed a bill pro-
hibiting distinctions of colour in public convey-
ances.

The American war steamer De Soto, reported to
have been lost at St. Thomas, has arrived safely at
Norfolk. The loss of the war steamer Mononga-
hela is confirmed.

St. Thomas is to be formally transferred to the
United States on the Ist January.
It is reported that the United States have re-
opened negotiations with Baaz for the purchase of
Samana Bay.

(nom ova SPECIAL CORSESPONDENT.)
NEW YORK, Dic. 7.

The debate on impeachment was opened in the
house on Thursday in a very temperate speech by
Mr. Boutwell, but he had not got into the details
of his subject when the adjournment took place.
The great change in his manner, which, during the
whole of the reconstruction process, has been rather
violent, and the moderation of his tone, are encou-
raging signs. Moreover, he made one admission
which unquestionably, it seems to me, settles the
result of this affair. Ho acknowledged that Con-
gress had no power to suspend tho President
during his trial, inasmuch as if it could do this, all
the majority would ever have to do in order to de-
prive the President of his powers under the con-
stitution would be to prefer articles of impeach-
ment against him on any charges, however frivolous.
This possible result of the suspension theory was
pointed out long ago by the opponents of the pro-
ject, but it was never admitted until now by the
impeachers that it was of any moment. In fact,
if I am not greatly mistaken, Wendell Phillips,
as well as others of the extreme radicals, has
openly avowed that they would care nothing
for impeachment whatever, and that it would
not serve their purpose, unless accompanied by
suspension from office pending the trial. Now
there is hardly any doubt whatever that what with
the preliminary debates in the house, the drawing
up of the articles, the appointment of managers,
the speeches of counsel, and the production of
evidence before the Senate, the trial would last all
through the winter, or, in other words, till the
country was plunged into the excitement of the
next presidential canvass, so that even if the process
were as successful as its supporters could desire, the
result would not be reached until it had ceased
to be of any use to them. This has been so plain
, ever since the failure to bring the matter to a head
last winter, that I never supposed that the im-
peachers would abandon their suspension from
office theory, and Mr. Boutwell's doing so, in their
name, has taken, I think, most people by surprise.
I still see no reason to doubt the correctness of the
opinion I have expressed ever since the late elec-
, tion about the course the matter will run. It is
r difficult at the same time to make any calculation
with any confidence when Mr. Johnson is one of the
elements in it. His message, for instance, would
derange the best prophesying apparatus ever seen.
It has unquestionably strengthened the impeachers,
but in what way it has benefited either Mr. John-
son or the country it would be hard to say. The
greater portion of it is taken up with the reitera-
tion of his old opinions on reconstruction, and
which read, at this stage in the process, very much
like a denunciation of the French revolution. The
repetition of them cannot possibly change the
course of events, but it can irritate the majority,
and regain for them, what they were fast losing,
the sympathy and support of the country, and all
this it has done. It is of course absurd to suppose
that it is now possible to undo what has been done at
the South. Even if it were shown that the country I
was utterly opposed to the congressional plan of
bringing the Southern States back into the Union,
Congress would not stultify itself by repealing the
law, and putting things back into the state in
which it found them. No body of men gifted
with the least self-respect would subject them-
selves to any such humiliation, and the present
Congress has a year from next March to sit. There-
fore there is absolutely nothing to be gained by
railing against its doings, and for Mr. Johnson
there is much to be lost.

He has not, however, confined himself to the
simple reiteration of his own opinions. He has
strongly hinted that in certain contingencies he
would feel himself justified in resisting emigres-
aional legislation by force, and intimates pretty
broadly, in fact, that such a contingency had
actually occurred ; that he refrained from resort-
ing to violence and plunging the country into
"civil war," solely because he hoped the elections
would turn in his favour. There can, of course,
be no good purpose served by talk of this sort. If
it be a threat, it is nut a threat by which anybody
is the least likely to be frightened. Nobody is
afraid of a "civil war," with Mr. Johnson on one

[TWOPENCE

aide and Congress on the other, and perhaps none
fear it so little, or, perhaps, I might say, desire it
so much, as the extreme radicals, on whom doubt-
less he hoped to make most impression. Therefore,
the only result he has achieved by it is to irritate
not only the majority in Conaress, but the whole
North. It may not be altogether fair to infer from
his messages and documents that he is a bad man,
but he is unquestionably one of the stupidest men
who in his position ever put pen to paper.
There is nothing else in the message of much
interest, except what relates to the view taken by
European powers of the force of the American natu-
ralisation laws. I touched slightly on this sub-
ject at the close of my last letter—but I would not
have you underrate its importance. I do not
believe the claim of European powers, whatever
force it may derive from either usage, judicial de-
cisions, or the text books, will much longer be
admitted. The question has, it is true, been made
somewhat more prominent within a week or two by
the decisions of the Irish courts in Warren's case,
but it has been long pending between this country
and Prussia. The Court Journal (English) has
had an article on the Fenian cases, treating
the claim. of Warren and others to be
treated as American citizens as silly and absurd,
and declaring in a very contemptuous way
that it deserves no more respect or attention than
the American talk about the Alabama case. 1
have not of late seen a more flippant and irritating
deliverance on any American question in the
columns of the English press. It has been copied
into the Tribune and various other papers, and
circulated all over the country a propoa of this very
subject, and a better fillip to Fenianiam it would
be hard to think of. It may seem absurd to Eng-
lish readers to attach much importance to the poli-
tical utterances of the Court Junnial, but it must
be borne in mind that people here imagine it to be
the special organ of the Court, and the exponent of
the opinions held by the Court circle, or highest
" set " amongst the aristocracy. It must be re-
membered also that the foreign element in the
population is already very large, and is inc easing
very rapidly. The Germans and Irish together
must number at least a fourth of the total popula-
tion. These were the figures of the last census ; I
think if I now said a third, I should nut be
very far above the mark. Thirty or forty, or
even twenty, years ago, when a man came
from Europe to settle in this country, he
seldom had much hope or expectation of going
back. The voyage was too long, and too disagree-
able to be encountered lightly, even by those who
could spare the time and money it required ; so
that the European governments were seldom or
never either troubled or rejoiced by the re-appear-
ance of exiles from their shores, and the question
of the effect of American naturalisation seldom
came up. It had, too, so little political importance,
that the American judges, with the sanction of the
legislature, construed the naturalisation laws in the
light of European precedents.
But in our time all this is changed. Not only is
the number of the foreign-born population here
very large, but vast numbers of them have emi-
grated, not simply as men did in the last genera-
tion, from the desire of bettering their material
condition? but from political discontent, from well-
settled dislike to the political system under which
• they have been born, from dislike to the conscrip-
tion, or the monarchy, or the aristocracy, or, as in
the case of the Irish, to the rule of another country.
Large bodies of them also are now persons of great
enterprise and intelligence, and have accumulated
considerable sums of money, or are engaged in
commercial undertakings which either carry them
back to Europe frequently, or force them to keep
• up a close correspondence with it. Moreover, the
almost complete substitution of steamers for sailing
vessels in the passenger trade has put a trip to
Europe within everybody's reach. Any labourer
has now-a-days enough money in the savings bank
to take him across to Cork or Hamburg in ten days
or a fortnight. There are half a dozen lines leav-
, ing New York now twice or three times a week,
which are as well filled when going eastward as
, when coining westward, and filled, too, mainly with
"adopted citizens" who are going back to Europe
' to see their friends, or on business, and who, far
' from thinking of remaining there, are enthusiastic,
or, if you like the phrase better, red-hot Ameri-
cans. To have such large bodies of persons
exposed to demands on their allegiance by
the country of their birth, which they have
quitted, is a growing inconvenience. In the
' case of the Germans it has become an intolerable
grievance, owing to the rigidity of the Prussian
conscription laws, and it is aggravated by the in-
creasing alienation of all American citizens tram
European political ideas, and their growing con-
' tempt for European ways of doing things.

In the case of the Irish the sure is kept open
and aggravated by the national hate of everythuig
English, and it is the Fenian policy now to keep it
open, and make it tell on American politics. In
writing about Fenianism a year ago, 1 ventured to
warn you that there was no hope of quiet in Ire-
land as long as the Fenians here were busy and
active, and there are real grievances there to supply
them with ammunition. The more numerous they
become, the less disposition they show, it seems to
me, to become part and parcel of the American
commonwealth, and the more fervently they cling
to their Irish nationality. The cry you hoar from
the Irish agitators now that it is too late to redress
Irish grievances, and that nothing short of separation
will suffice, unquestionably comes from this side
of the water. Tho thought of a contented Ireland
firmly united for ever to Great Britain is one which
the American Fenian cannot endure, and they will
never give up the hope of working out their ends,
till England has been tried in a great war and come
out successfully. There is a feeling amongst them,
which is largely shared by Americans, that England
is not equal to another struggle with a first class
power, that she cannot raise or organise the kind
of army which modern warfare needs, and that
with ironclads and the new artillery her maritime
supremacy has passed away, and that a sharp
struggle with a naval power of her own size a, uld
reveal the secret of her weakness. You c:in not,
therefore, hope, I think, for rest from this side,
until there is no material left in Ireland for
American Fenianism to work on, and until
you have shown what you are able to do in
tho way of raising a great army on a pinch ;
and questions like this naturalization question
will be kept going till the proper time comes. There
is perhaps no point, too, on which the Fcnians
will command so much sympathy from the Ameri-
cans as this naturalization question, Chancellor
Kent and the Supreme Court in anywise notwith-
standing. It is easy to imagine, however, a broad
construction of the naturalization laws working
monstrous abuses, owing to the frauds committed
in this city and other places like it. I do not
believe any American politician of sense or charms-
ter has the remotest expectation of seeing Ireland
detached from the British crown ; but I think there
are very few to whom the growth of Fenianism is
not a constant puzzle and embarrassment, and to
whom the pacification of Ireland would not be
nearl vas great a relief as it would to Mr. Gladstone
or Mr. Disraeli

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