The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-09 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, DEC. 9, 1867.

The news brcught by the Atlantic Telegraph this
morning is hithly important, and indicates very
brcibly the change which has come over the spirit
Ainerie,in politics. " The resolution for the
Lnyeachnient of Prcsidebt JOHNSON," so runs the
message,"has been defeated in the House of Re-
presentatives. The voting was 57 yeas and 108

nays." Twelve months ago it would have been
difficult to convince the Radicals of the possibility of
such a transformation. They had, as they imagined,
a firm hold of the reins, and they did not believe
that their adversaries would ever be able to hinder
their headstrong and reckless progress. No
doubt this conviction precipitated their dounfal
by tho extremes to which it led them, and the
tone of the report presented by the Judiciary Com-
I mit tee in favour of the impeachment shows even now
little abatement of their arrogance. it was only on
Saturday that we published the news brought by
the Scotia from New York on the 27th ult., in which
a full account of the report was given. The COM-
mittee, it is true, were divided on the question, two
of them censuring the political conduct of the PRE-
SIDENT, but declaring that Lis offences did not justify
an impeachment, which the evidence would not sus-
tain. Two others adopted a bolder course, and,
while defending the PRESIDENT, plainly de-
clared their conviction that the real ground of
his offence wag his refusal to endorse its partisan
and unconstitutional course. The majority of the
committee, however, tendered an alarming cata-
logue of crimes and misdemeanours. The PRESI-
DENT, they affirm, had neglected to convene Con-
gress when the rebellion collapsed ; in having
usurped the powers of Congress by attempting to
restore the rebellious States to the Union; in having
established illegalprovisional Governments through-
out the South ; in having disparaged Congress
before the people; in having corruptly inter-
fered with the elections, and abused the

appointing, removing, and pardoning powers
of his office ; and in having authorised
the national forces to disperse assemblages of loyal
citizens in Louisiana. The last item in the list of
charges crosses the narrow line between the sublime
and the ridiculous. When we remember the riotous
character of the Louisiana " loyal citizens," the
armed negroes and disorderly whites, we shall
hardly be of opinion that their unceremonious dis-
persion demands so serious a step as the impeach-
ment of the highest officer in the country. The
corrupt interference" with elections, too, with
which the PRESIDENT is charged, comes rather
strangely from the exponents of that party whose
electioneering manoeuvres hare certainly been very
far from immaculate. When we come to examine
the more serious charges we find them scarcely
more tenable. The accusation of usurping the
powers of Congress by attempting to restore the
rebellious States to the Union is not a little singular.
What should the PRESIDENT have done ? Should
he have forgotten that the whole terrible four years
war with all its attendant loss, suffering, and sacri-
fice was waged to preserve the Union ? The favou-
rite Northern theory was, that the Union had never
been broken, and could not be broken ; yet the
Radicals now talk about restoring the rebellious
States to the Union. The first object with every
honest and patriotic man, North and South, was
the restoration of harmony and union. The leading
Southerners themselves so soon as they found the
cause of the Confederacy was indeed hopeless ad-
vocated submission and tranquillity, and as a surer
test of their sincerity they acted up to what they
advocated. General LEE himself, after openly
advising his followers to accept the fortunes of
war, retired into a private position, which he has
since filled with honour and dignity. The Southern
people exhausted by the struggle, mortified by dis-

appointment, with their money spent, their fighting
population decimated, their leaders gone, and
their plantations desolated, subsided into sullen
patience. It needed blot little forbearance and
magnanimity on the part of the North to have won

them over to their old allegiance. But the turbu-
lent and imperious lladicds appeared upon the
scene, and set themselves industriously to work to
rekindle the expiring flame, and to keep open the

wounds which other men were trying to bind

together. They readily perceived that with the

restoration of political harmony aLd social order
their chances of supremacy would be very much

lessened; whereas the large bodies of eager,

excitable, and ignorant negroes, who only ini-

perfectly understood their new position, and
were filled with vague dreams of grants

of land, and Government assistance, offered
them tempting facilities for pursuing the

mischievous and invidious course they have in

reality adopted. The Judiciary Committee blame
the PRESIDENT for establishing illegal provisional

Governments in the South, while the Radicals them-

selves have set at defiance every principle of con-
stituticnal ]aw by establishing military governors
over a people in time of peace. If the case had
been reversed, and Mr. JOHNSON had sanctioned

martial law, had interrupted the action of the

courts, had removed the civil officers and put
civil military men in their place, there might

indeed have been ground for serious charges agains
him. Ilad be squandered the public finances am

hampered the action of the financial Minister—had

he lavished large sums in bounties to members o:

Congress and to soldiers in time of peace—he might
have been accused of trifling with the national ex-

chequer. Had ho sought in everything his own
personal advantage and aggrandisement—had he

resented every remonstrance, and broken through

every restrains which law or custom, or pub

lie opinion, or his constitutional oath im

posed upon him, reproaches of the Legis.

lature might have been justly directed against

him.

The Committee accuse Mr. JOHNSON of

having disparaged Congress before the people, but
what have they to say of the language and the

policy which Congress has adopted towards the head

of the State ? When the whole catalogue is summed
up the list of " high crimes and misdemeanours"

reads rather as if it was directed against the Radicals
themselves than against the PRESIDENT ! The

plain speaking of the two members of the Corn-

who spoke
mittee (whose names are not given),

the truth in a manner not often heard in

any assembly of the kind, comes with a refreshing

simplicity after the inflated denunciations of the
majority. The fact is, Mr. JOHNSON stood in the
way of the Radicals, and hopelessly blocked their

road to the appropriation and confiscation of Southern

property. His firmness was not to be moved by

threats or persuasions, by insinuations or entreaties.
While everything seemed in their favour, when the

last elections bad given them a Congressional
majority which made the Presidential veto

an empty form, when Mr.

JOHNSON'S

own imprudence had alienated many neutral poli-

ticians, the PRESIDENZ still stood undaunted. Now
the scene has changed with a suddenness and a com-
pleteness that have surpassed many. The Radicals

have lost the game.

They ha►•e played their last

card against the PRESIDENT, and the PRESIDET has

won.

The brief autumn session is over, and its results
have been as satisfactory as could have been desired.
The Abyssinian expedition has met with all the
support that the Government could have hoped for,
and notwithstanding some determined att•icks made
upon the promoters of it nothing damaging has
been achievtd. It is to the credit of both 'louses
of the Legislature that this should be the

case, for the honour of the country is con-
cerned in the affair, and any check put
upon it from an influential quarter would