The Express.
London, England, 1868-03-10 00:00:00

am

NEW TOES, FM. 25.

The impeaching have at last carried the day.
The bnpsagiument of Mr. Johnaon has bees voted
by the entire Repablieen party in Congress, and
the articles will probably be ready for presentation
to the Senate early next week. He has ten days to
prepare for his &tease' so that I suppose we may
look for the trial about the middle of March. How
long it will last will depend on the impeachers
themselves, and as the managers of the move-
ment are not by any means the wisest of
man, it is not unlikely it may last far too
long for the good of the party or the efficacy
of the process. There was a good deal of

excitement about the affair both here and in
Washington on Saturday, but it has nearly all died
out, and I do not believe it will revive again until
the trialmenes on, if it does then. Impeachment
has been so long talked about, and Mr. Johnson has
been guilty of so many indiscretions, that the public
had grown familiar with arida, and although its
revival on Saturday greatly surprised them, it was
by no means the shock it would have been had it
occurred • year ago. Thera is no question that the
project was fairly killed when it was last brought up
in the house only a fortnight ago. Its resuscitition
and success are Mr. Johnson's own doing. As I
have often told you, he has never kept silent and re-
trained from aggressive demonstrations toward s Cor.-
gram at anytime since the quarrel began, for even
• fortnight without finding histecountin it. Congress
has by the law of its being to keep doing and raying,
and, consequently, exposing itself to criticism, and
it has of late been sufficiently indiscreet to call out
a great deelof hostile criticism. The President, on the
other hand, has only to speak when he pleases, and
need rarely act on his own relit:on, and there is
thus a constant tendency in the public mind to
think well of him, and to ascribe to him good in-
tentions and capabilities, if he has the grace to
keep quiet. During tho past six months he has
bean tolerably discreet ; but the failure of the im-
peachment-project in November, followed] as it was
by the evil counsds of violent men, made him once
more aggressive. Ile removed Hancock, and
Sickles, and Popo, which he had a right to do, but
his doing it did not in the least improve the condi-
tion of the South,even from his poiut of ciose,while
it once more roused the auspicious and hostility of
the North. He followed this up by the outrageous
folly of rending an insulting message to Congress,
recommending them to peas a vote of thanks to
Hancock for showing a disposition to execute the
Reconstruction Act in a spirit of hostility to it,
and to the policy of which it is the instrument.
This, of course, greatly exasperated the majority
in both houses, and ho has since then only avoided
attack by keeping strictly within the letter of the
• law.

He, however, never quito reconciled himself
to having Stanton kept in the War Department
azaimt his will, and as soon as be found that tht
Senate would rofuse to consent to hie removal, Mr.
Johnson determined to put somebody into Grant's
place without the consent of tho Senate, and thou
by this-mem bring the whohr nines: of the

constitutionality of the law before the courts.
Grant frestrated this plan by letting Stanton slip
into his place, without the President's knowledge

or consent, and the temper which Congress showed
about the transaction would have warned • wise
man to let byegones be byegonoa, and make the beet
of necessity. Mr. Johnson determined, however,
not to give up, and suddenly, without, it is said,
any consultation with the chiefs of the Democratic
/warty, resolved to remove 'Mr. Stanton and put another
person in his placewithont the consent of theSende.
He therefore appointed Adjutant-General Thomas,
an old and rather weak man, to fill the place, and
formally removed Stanton, in direct violation of the
Tenure of Office Acts, which makes the removal of
an officer under such circumstances a misdemea-
nour, punishable with fine and imprisonment.
General Thomas accordingly presented himself at
the War Department, and demanded possession,
which was of course refused, and ho was soon after
arrested, and held to bail on a warrant issued on
the application of Mr. Stanton. The Senate lost
no time in passing • resolution pronouncing Mr.
Johnson's action illegal, and caused a copy of it to
be served.on him. He at once set to work to pre-
pare a message explaining and defending his con-
duct, being apparently for the first time a little
alarmed, but before it reached the Senate the house
had voted his impeachment by an overwhelming
majority. The ground lie takes is that the officers
whom the act makes irremovable, except with the
advice and consent of the Senate, are such as have
been appointed by the President actually in office ;
and that for the removal of those appointed
by his predecessor he does not need such
advice and consent. Mr. Stanton was ap.
pointed by Mr. Lincoln, and therefore
the ace, says Mr. Johnson, does not cover his case.
The set undoubtedly does seem susceptible of some
such interpretation as this, bat unfortunately this
defence does not tally with Mr. Johnson's previous
sob. He clearly did not take this rims of the
matter when he suspended Mr. Stanton two or
three months ago. If he did, he would have re-
moved instead of suspending him, In suspending
him only, and giving his reasons to the Senate, he
showed dearly that he had not then thought of
considering Mr. Stanton's case an exception under
the act, and there is of coarse *general disposition
to believe that his resort to this plea now is simply
the effect of cowardice.
The ease of the impeachers is that he has di-
rectly and flatly violated the law ; that inview of j
his past course it is impossible to attach any im-
portance to his plea, that by what he is now
doing he simply wishes to test the consti-
tutionality of the law before the court. If any-
' body else In his place used this argument in his
own defence, even for the commission of a misde-
meanour, it might receive much attention,
but in Mr. Johnson's month it has abso-
lutely no weight whatever. The extreme
Radicals believe him to bo the worst of men,
and exhaust even their vocabulary in trying to find
epithets sufficiently strong to characterise his °De-
duct. The moderates, on the other hand, who
have been all along trying to shield him, not for
his own sake, but for the sake of peace and quiet,
have grown tired of shielding him. They see that
he is incorrigibly stupid, even if not incorrigibly
wicked, and that he will not permit himself to be
saved They have therefore given him up, and
will, I think, be heartily glad to get rid of him.
The Democrats, on the other hand, have long ago
repudiated him. They approve of his political
opinions. and share his hostility to Congress. but

r...? ri •'•
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A

[ONE PENNY

Iso indiscreet and so luiadstiong as be is if ,
sto any party. Morsover, it • has been DO .
of IM. that both be himself and WOW of his

immediate friends were beginning to think serf'
only of his getting the Democratic nomination of .r
the Presidency. it is always embaraming to have -
the President a candidate for re-election if his
party are not disposed to favour his claims, as he
has, of coarse, a good deal of influence—enough, at
all events, to make him a formidable enemy, if tot
o valuable friend. Mr. Johnson moan exceedingly.
undesirable candidate for any party, and yet ,
it was difficult to throw him overboard, *,
so that I imagine, if the Senate should convict
him, and declare him, as they may do, incapable of
again holding office, they will relieve the demo-
cratic managers from some embarrassoar
all events, whatever their motives, the democrats
receive the whole proceeding with perfect calm,
and even with indifference. 80, for that matter;
does the whole country. The money market has:
hardly stirred under the news. Gold shows a ten-
dency downward rather than upward, and in fact,
I think, the impeachment proceeding trill havens
more effect on the public mind than any other trial:
From all I can see here, the prospect of it seems:
rather quieting than otherwise.
There have, of course, been desperate efforts
made by the sensational newspapers and politicians
to lash the public into excitement. Wilder balder-'
.lash on any subject' I have never seen in print'
than the leading articles and Washington cone-.
spondence of one or two of the republican papers
during the past few days. But the tone of the
press in general has been very calm, moderate,
and respectable ; and the public, I think, is taking
pains to show that it cannot be thrown off its
balance by even the trial of " tho chief of the
State " for " high crimes and misdemeanours."
Some excitable militia colonels, and one or two
governors, in the first momenta of their tnthre
siasm telegraphed to Washington their willingness
to march to the defence of Congress at the head of
regiments, brigades, or divisions, being apparently
under the impression that " the usurper in the
White House," as it is the fashion of some people
to call him, would resort to force ; but all such
offers are likely to be smartly snubbed by Secretary
btanton and General Grant. There is a report,
which I do not believe, that the President sent for
General Emory, who is in command of the troop.
at Washington, to sound him as to whose order
he would obey in case of an armed collision, but
found him hopelessly non-committal. At at
events, General Grant has put a stopper on al.
apprehensions on this score, by forbidding any
movements of troops except under direct orders
from him. There is not the least doubt—Profeasei
Newman to the contrary notwithstanding—that
the smallest indication of a desire or intention or
the part of the President or his friends to resort tc
violence, would be the signal for another rising
at the North like that of April, 1861. It is but just
to Mr. Johnson to say, however, that those who
know most about his present state of mind are most
c..ontident that nothing can be farther hest his
thoughts than any attempt to interfere in any way
c:ith the due course of law.

It. Ati

It is urged by the New York Times, and many c I
the moderate republicans seem to share the opinion,
that inasmuch as the constitutionality of the law
for disobedience to which Mr. Johnson has been
impeached is at least doubtful, the Senate ought to
wait till this point has been determined by the
Supreme Court. But there is no chance that the
Scuate will do so, for several reasons. In the feat
place, there is every reason to believe that the
Senate will hold that when sitting judicially it can
itself decide on the constitutionality of the
and that its decision is binding on the Supreme
Court and on everybody else. The correctness of
this view of the Senate's powers is dontted by very
good lawyers, but there is little doubt it is the view
the Senate will take. In the next place, even if
the unconstitutionality of the law were certain, Mr.
Johnson would still be liable to punishment for dis-
obeying. There is a well settled legal presumption,
thatall laws areconatitutional till they have been de.
clued to be otherwiso by a competent tribunal.
Any other rule would ruin a country where there
is a written constitution, as it would enable every
official and every private citizen to disobey all acts
of the legislature until their validity had been
tested by a suit at law. Ne government could
permit such a theory to be embodied in the prao-
tioe of its functionaries without endangering its
own existence. It is quite true that here, when
the courts declare a law unconstitutional,' it
becomes bad from the very beginning, and all acts
done under it become illegal, and the officers who
have carried it out become Mtde This
is, no doubt, a great inconvenience, but
inconvenience of which officers are aware before
they accept their places. If they do nut like- the
risks it entails, they can quit the service. Now,
I►bat Mr. Johnson has done is to decide himself
•that p law is unconstitutional, and act under
his own (lecision. This is, and ought to be, a
punishable offence, whether his decision be
right or wrong, because when committed
by a high public functionary it of coarse
brings the machinery of government to a
dead lock, and if it were not treated as an offence
in the President, of coarse it could not be treated
as an offence in any official, and we should see
every little functionary all over the country
obeying just such acts of Congress as he thought
proper, and no others. So that even if the Supreme
Court should hereafter, on a case properly made,
declare the Tenure of Office Act unconstitutional,
Mr. Johnson would still be properly triable and
punishable for having resisted it before it was de-
clared unconstitutional. I have no doubt, nor has
any one, that the Senate will treat the whole gees-
tion with judicial-mindedness. It contains a
large proportion of able lawyers, and the great.
majority are men of long training in the public
service, an whom the popular passions producs.
very little influence, as we see every day in the
reception accorded to the madcap bills and resqln-
tions which are sent up by the house.

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