The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-29 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 29, 1.,67.

AMERICA.

(PROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

NEW YORK, Jam 12.
The expressions of opinion elicited by the itapeach-
ment movement in Congress are, so far as I have
been able to examine them, decidedly unfavour-
able. The country press is almost universally op-
posed to it, and nothing that we hear from Washing-
ton encourages the belief that the scheme finds real
countenance there. I may, of course, be mistaken,
as Congress sometimes does very unlooked for
things, but I am satisfied just now that the Ashley
resolution has been referred to the Judiciary Com-
mittee with the express intention of shelving it,
at least for the present. Congress is of course very
unwilling to enter upon such an undertaking as
impeaching the President, without being sure
that it may count on the sympathy and support of
the country. But until now very little was known
of what the country thought about it. The pro-
posal had only been heard of in the mouths of
extreme men, like General Butler and Wendell Phil-
lips. Anything very violent that either of these
gentlemen fart; that anybody-thoose•tossy
at a hearty meeting of radicals is sure to be loudly
applauded, but little can be learnt from this as to
what the public at large is willing to have done.
No real expression of opinion takes place upon any-
thing which is not taken up by the more moderate
men, men whose words people are accustomed to
see followed by action, so that it is only now that
we are able to get at the real value of the impeach-
ment movement.

In the next place, the present Congress, which
only sits till March 4th, is extremely unwilling to
Itake up any measure of such gravity as this would
be, knosting well that it cannot finish it. More-
! over, the question has been raised, and it doubt-
less bag some value, whether the changes which will
occur in the Senate in March would not disqualify
that body from proceeding with any trial before
that period. It is asserted that the judicial
body, whatever it be, must remain the same from
first to last—a doctrine which, if sound, would dia-
-1 qualify the Senate from continuing any trial longer
than one year, fur some changes take place in it
every March.
I think it not at all unlikely, that there may be
in the next Congress a stronger feeling in favour
of impeachment than there is in this. There will
certainly be a greater number of impeachers, and
they will be led on by General Butler, who, it is
well understood, goes to Congress in this character
expressly. He will do everything to forward it
which audacity, energy, readiness, and knowledge
of parliamentary tactics can do ; but then the
country would have little confidence in him as
the manager of a process so very delicate as this
would be, and I do not believe that if conducted
by him it would command the support and ap-
proval of any but a very small section of the public.
It must not be forgotten, too, that trade and com-
merce are in a very depressed condition here.
Many of the mills are working on half time, and in
fact there is something very like stagnation in every
field of industry. Nothing but the general distrust
which has reigned ever since the outbreak of the
war, and which has, as a general rule,
confined dealings in nearly every branch
of business to a cash basis, has prevented a re-
gular " crisis" like that of 1857. But as nobody
owes much, and as everybody keeps as small
a stock of goods on hand as possible, we have
' passed through three or four months of extra-
ordinary depression without a single failure of
importance. But the situation is sufficiently
grave to inspire the greatest caution. American
ships have disappeared from the sea ; the taxation
is very heavy, and what with this, and the dis-
order in the currency, there is hardly a branch of
industry in which foreigners are not able to under-
sell natives in the home markets. The result is
that business men are exceedingly timid, and
watch the political horizon with an anxiety they
have not displayed since 1860. To them the im-
peachment would be fraught with danger. It
would absorb the attention of Congress and of the
public to such a degree that there would be little
chance of getting anything done this year towards
the reform of the currency, or the regulation of the
tariff, two of the most pressing needs of the day.
It would, moreover, add to the political complica-
tions already existing, and render the completion
of the work of re-construction, by the intensity and
bitterness it would infuse into party feeling, more
difficult and distant than ever. It would, too,
by the panic it would probably excite amongst
foreign holders of government bonds, send home
vast quantities of these securities for sale at low
rates, and thus extremely depress the market here ;
and by the exasperation it created amongst the
Democrats, which would probably last fur longer
than the trial, it could notfailto fill the country with
foreboding as to the next presidential election, and
perhaps protract the existing uncertainty till 1868.
All these things combine to make people in busi-
ness—and everybody may be said to be in business
here—extremely anxious to avoid extreme mea-
sures, and I think very strong pressure is brought
to bear on Congress front all the great commercial
centres against the impeachment.
The result of the yacht race and the reception
given to the yachtsmen in England, coupled with
the attitude attributed to the Derby ministry on
the Alabama question, is producing the happiest
effects upon the public mind as regards American
relations with England. I think that this claim
once settled in a frank way, by its submission to
arbitration, there would remain little, if any, of
the old bitterness. In fact, nobody who knows
what the real feelings of most Americana towards
England are can doubt that as long as the North
retains its ascendancy in the government there
is no country in the world with which
England can more easily keep on good
terms than with the United States. Everything
that can possibly influence the people in
favour of peaceful relations with another is
to be found in Northern and Western society.
Every cause which seemed likely to bring the two
countries into collision has in my opinion disap-
peared with the overthrow of the South and the
abolition of slavery ; and if the tory press of Eng-
land can only be persuaded into confining them-
selves in controversies with the United States to
the use of the same weapons which they would
employ against France, or Russia, or Prussia, I see
no reason why peace should not be perpetual, and
why there might not even be an alliance which
would survive even grave differences of opinion, or
wide divergence of policy. Of the candour with
which Americans are disposed to approach this
matter of the Alabama there can be no better
illustration than a pamphlet recently published by