The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY' EVENING,

the Timm_ corresponaent says tom mucn altx. Oz wmcn
nothing is.heard is also sent from America.

THE UNITED STATES.

Mr. E., B. Washburne, the intimate friend of President
Grant, (leclined to take office on the ground of ill-health.
The coixespondence between the two statesmen on this
subject is formal, hut there is nothing to indicate
that the remarkable friendship between them is in any
way weakened. Mr. Andrew Johnson, the ex-President,
has met with an enthusiastic reception at Baltimore. He
was entertained at a banquet, but said very little. He
considered his retirement as a deliverance, for he was
now a free man, and he would rather be a free private
citizen than a President and a slave. He is likely to enjoy
his preference.

Mr. E. B. Washburne is to be Ambassador at Paris ;
and Mr. Stanton, the Secretary for War, who had the
memorable feud with President Johnson, is spoken of in
some quarters as likely to succeed Mr. Reverdy Johnson
at the English Court.

of constant attack. The latter they had rendered
a nullity. They had attempted to place him under
a bold, defiant, treacherous Cabinet officer ; robbed
him of the prerogative of pardon, usurping it to
favour their party adherents, conspired to change
the system of Government by impeaching him, even
contemplating before trial his arrest, when at plea-
sure thciy might drive him forth from place and
power in disgrace. By reckless expenditure in
peace, they have increased the people's burdens, en-
hanced the prices, of necessaries by permitting a
deranged currency, while maintaining a large army
to enforce oppression, and built up and encou-
raged monopolies to enrich a few at the ex-
pense of the many. They have failed to act upon
important treaties, thereby endangering the pre-
sent peaceful relations with foreign powers.
"By unconstitutional and oppressive enactments
the people of ten States of the Union have been
reduced to a condition more intolerable than
that from which the patriots of the Revolution re-
belled. Millions of American citizens can now say
of their oppressors with more truth than our fa-
thers did of British tyrants, that they have for-
bidden the Governments to pass laws of immediate
and pressing importance unless suspended until
their assent should be obtained ;' that they have
refused to pass other laws for the accommodation
of large districts of people unless those people
would relinquish the right of representation in the
Legislature,' a right inestimable to them and for-
midable to tyrants only ; that they have ' made
judges dependent upon their will alone for the ten-
ure of their offices, and the amount and payment of
their salaries ;' that they have erected a multitude
of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers
to harass ourpeople and eat out their substance ; that
they have affected to render the military indepen-
dent and superior to the civil power ; combined
with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign
to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our-
selves ; quartered large holies of armed troops
an-ong us ; protected them by a mock trial from
punishment for any murders which they should
commit on the inhabitants of these States ; impo&d
taxes upon us without our consent ; deprived us in
many cases of the benefit of trial by jury ; taken
away our charters ; incited domestic insurrection
among us ; abolished our most valuable laws ; al-
tered fundamentally the forms of our Government ;
suspended our own Legislatures and declared them-
selves invested with power to legislate for us in all
cases whatsoever. This catalogue of crimes, long
as it is, is not yet complete. The Constitution
vests the judicial power of United States
in one Supreme Court, whose jurisdiction shall
extend to all cases arising under the Constitu-
tion and the laws of the United States. While
impeaching him who had throughout life defended
the Constitution as well as the Union, they could
find no warrant to bring to trial the chief of
the rebellion, and for propriety's sake it became
necessary to extend to him an unconditional pardon.
Instead of seeking to make treason odious, their
intention was to punish the defence of the Consti-
tution and Union as a crime. The war, instead of
injuring, has strengthened the Constitution, and
the States reserve their rights under it." Among
these is to name the qualifications of voters in their
own State, yet Congress assumes to control this vital
right, which involves that of each State to govern
itself. That gone, they fall under the arbitrary
will of Congress, withdao power worth retaining,
and the Government will be centralized through the
adoption of an amendment by partisan influence in
direct conflict with the original design of the Con-
stitution. Neither of the three great departments
should be permitted to encroach on the other or on
the reserved rights of the people and of the States.
Mr. Johnson then gives salutary advice to the
young men reared amid the sound of cannon and
the din of arms on whom will devolve the solemn
duty of perpetuating the Union, and from this he
turns to a calm review of his administration. lie
has nothing to regret :—" Events have proved the
correctness of the policy set forth in my first and
subsequent Messages. The woes which have fol-
owed the rejection of forbearance, magnanimity,
and Constitutional rule, are known and deplored by
the nation. It is a matter of pride and gratifica-
tion, in retiring from the most exalted position in
the gift of a free people to feel and know that in a
long, arduous, and eventful public life my action
has never been influenced by desire for gain, and
that I can, in all sincerity, inquire, Whom have I
defrauded ? Whom have I oppressed ? or at whose
hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes
therewith? No responsibility for wars that have
I been waged, or blood that has been shed rests upon
me. My thoughts have been those of peace, and
I my effort has ever been to allay contentions among
my countrymen. Forgetting the past, let us re-
turn to the first principles of the Government, and,
unfurling the banner of our country, inscribe upon
it in ineffacable characters, ' The Constitution and
the Union, oue and inseparable."'