The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENINGt, MAY 1, 1868.

THE STATE TRIAL.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
On Monday last the defence was concluded, and
on Wednesday Mr. BOUTWELL —the " Black 11 air'd
Energy of the Impeachment," or the "Cold and
Classical Demosthenes," names which the fertile

imagination of Washington correspondents have
bestowed—replied to the arguments of the PRESI-
DENT'S counsel. At any moment, therefore, the

verdict of this great State trial may be promul-
gated. The Court refused to receive the testimony
of the Cabinet officers, by which the counsel in-
tended to prove that all, including Mr. STANTON,

had advised the PRESIDENT to veto the Tenure-
of-Office Bill ; and further, that the Cabinet
had since agreed that the Act was inapplicable
in the case of Mr. STANTON. Mr. BOUTWELL'S

speech appears to have been of the usual length,
and he of course maintained that the evidence sub-
mitted by the prosecution had completely sustained

the charges preferred, and equally of course con-
cluded by strongly urging the conviction of ANDREW
JOHNSON. We have had the great opening speech
of the prosecution by Mr. BUTLER, we have had
the great opening speech of the defence by Mr.
CURTIS, we have seen all the evidence the Mana-
gers could tender, and we know all the testimony
by which the PRESIDENT endeavours to rebut it,

and we have learnt very little—the trial only show-
ing that almost every material fact had been dis-
cussed by the press before it began. Taking
the bare facts relied on for the conviction
of ANDREW JOHNSON we are free to con-

fess that there has been " much ado about nothing."
The guilt lies in the intention ; a subject upon
which people in Europe cannot form an opinion,
and fortunately so for ANDREW JOHNSON. A
father or a mother of a family, who may be leading
the household "a devil-of-a life" at home, may
go abroad looking demure, amiable, and respect-
able ; and when things go wrong in the household, -
outsiders, in ignorance of the real provocation, the
ceaseless nagging, the constant fret, worry, and
irritation kept up in the establishment, condemn
the violence of those pressed beyond endurance, and
attribute the revolt to conspiracy. The persons most
skilled in this style of worry are scarcely ever caught
in any act not susceptible of a fair explanation.
They are best known in the army and navy, some-
times in public offices, and not unfrequently in
domestic life, hut seldom at the head of private
firms—as it is costly there to gratify such malice,
and likely to lead to failure in business. But a
colonel may bully his regiment, a captain, his crew,
or a secretary his clerks, and vent the venom of his
nature at the public expense. Now ANDREW
JOHNSON is one of these men. We do not say that
he is a bad instance ; but essentially he had
that in him calculated to worry and to stir up
every feeling of opposition, and all the rancour
that otherwise lay dormant in his opponent. This
not being felt nor seen in Europe, although
in truth the essence of the dispute, the bald facts
only come up for adjudication, and the judgment
for the most part is that expressed in the leading
article of the Tones last Thursday. The quarrel is
deplored, the form it has taken condemned, and
Congress censured as hasty, irritable, and unjust.
The facts as proved in the trial are that ANDREW
JOHNSON broke the Tenure-of-Office Act by remov-
ing Mr. STANTON—that he broke that Act by the
ad interim appointment of General THOMAS to the
Secretaryship of War—that he violated the Act of
1863 by this appointment, THOMAS not being quali-
fied. These being admitted, two points have to
be considered to decide the question of guilt. The
one is the law—and the other the intention
of ANDREW JOHNSON in taking these measures.
The question of law involves the consideration
whether the Tenure-of-Office Bill is Constitutional,
and, if so, has the PRESIDENT the right to infringe
it for the purpose of testing it ? Or, if unconsti-
tutional, is the PRESIDENT justified in breaking it
to prove it so? This is the subject to which Judge
CURTIS, the PRESIDENT'S leading counsel, mainly
arrithdeheede:PensnlitsaoEed ttstlephrsEiuomN:Tsieennipltef, tusinbatltn:osd
tanofnisd with consummate ability.consummateidnoirrtefreautltlh,partohnoidat.
it
which
Wishat
aat sub-theweight of the testimony is at Washington we can-
, not judge here. All we know is that without
any evil intention, the infringement of an Act

of doubtful legality being the only means of
testing it, though a misdemeanour in the eye
of the law, though opposed to principle, and bad as
an example and precedent, yet the nation will not
and cannot hold it to be a crime; indeed it knows that
it may become a duty in a President of the United
States at all hazards to set such an Act aside. On
this point the tribunal before which ANDREW JOHN-
SON is arraigned is, we believe, as fair as any to be
found in the United States. The circumstances
are better known to that Court than to any other
body of men; they are familiar with ANDREW
JOHNSON'S whole career, and with almost all his
doings 'since his succession to the Presidency. If
these, on the whole, tell in his favour he cannot fail
to be acquitted, as the two-thirds majority required
for conviction will more than overbalance the
party interest involved. The verdict, in truth, is
in the hands of some seven or eight independent
Senators; men, who if the PRESIDENT'S counsel
convince their reason that ANDREW JOHNSON
was acting from a sense of duty, and not going out
of his way to defy Congress—will acquit him.
Although the testimony of Secretary WELLEs and
others was refused, yet the fact is well known to
the Court that all the Cabinet, including Mr. STAN-
TON, advised the PRESIDENT to veto the Tenure-of-
Office Bill, which cannot but weigh heavily in dis-
proving a conspiracy ; and the evidence of General
EMORY in support of the 9th Article also totally
failed in its purpose. But we find, on the other hand,
these damaging facts. First, the speeches and
the threats of the PRESIDENT against Con-
gress ; next, the menace of Adjutant Gene-
ral Thomas, sent directly by the PRESI-
DENT illegally to possess himself of the War-
office, a menace of armed violence by the deputed
agent of ANDREW JOHNSON. We grant that from
General THOMAS'S own silly brain may have ema-
nated these threats ; but no argument cau wholly
shake the PRESIDENT clear of responsibility for the
acts of his instruments. THOMAS was accused of
weakness in not obtaining possession, and he was
much blamed by the JOHNSON party for not
"kicking STANTON out." The creation of the new
military district, with its head-quarters at Wash-
ington, and the desire manifested by the PRESIDENT
to bribe to his interest one of the leading
generals by undue promotion and high appoint-
ment must have had weight in forming the
opinions of the Senators, although not charged
and
soN. lie has been openly
uagrgaiends
writerstby
s to use his military
authority to suppress the usurping Congress. He
distinctly signified to that Congress, under certain
ANDREW
a
circumstances, he would appeal to force, and that
such a game might have been played was shown by
the numerous telegrams received by Mr. JOHNSON
offering armed assistance when he took the step of
removing Mr. STANTON. It is impossible for
the Senate to ignore the fact that the danger
of a civil war did hang over the Union from
Mr. JOHNSON'S administration, and even a
remote danger of such a horrible catastrophe
is by all means to be averted. The sacrifice of
ANDREW JOHNSON would be a cheap price to pay for
this, and he has in truth no more right to complain
than a man who insists on wearing a. boot with an
iron heel when he is unceremoniously turned out of a
powder magazine. How otherwise is this to be
accomplished? Congress cannot be removed, and
Congress and the PRESIDENT are a cat and a dog in
the same cage. The one that can MOM readily be
taken out is the proper one to taker out, and that
one is clearly the PRESIDENT. It is: all very well
for people in London and Paris to 4 Weelaitn against
the necessity, and to uphold the e verlasting prin-
ciples of justice; but we know that law is not in-
variably equity, nor the best of logic truth. The
case against the PRESIDENT as read in Europe
may be weak; yet the guilt a the _PRESIDENT
in the infringement of the Act still be legal'y
sufficient for the Court to convict .and de-
pose, while the expediency of the removal. may
be overwhelmingly strong. Can e spedievey be
taken into consideration by the Sena* actin p as a

Court? In theory we presume it ought not; prac-
tically it must have its influence, and even the
theory is disputed. The :Managers of Impeachment
insist on the Senate being a Senate that is a politi-
cal deliberative assembly, while the counsel of the
PRESIDENT assert that its functions had wholly
changed, and that for the trial it had resolved itself
into a legal tribunal. But whether Senate or tri-
bunal expediency cannot be eliminated from the
minds of the members, and that constitutes ANDREW
JOHNSON'S danger. The chances are that the
waverers who really decide will argue that they have
sufficient law and proof to convict if it be advisable,
and most of them are strongly impressed with the
necessity. For these reasons we look for the im-
mediate intelligence of a verdict against ANDREW
JOHNSON.

nion, or rather of insurmountable prejudice,
it is, alas ! most probable, that poor SAxno,
at least for the present, will be the sacrifice.
If the planters would on this subject exercise
their reasoning faculties, they would see that
the only course open to them is to educate the
freedmen for the eventual exercise of man's birth-
right—for whatever may be the checks—it may
safely be predicted that the race will yet be ad-
mitted throughout the United States to a voice
in the Government. Although the power must
again fall into the hands of the whites, the period
of probation will depend on the way in which they
use it, for they may depend upon, it whatever may
be their party triumph, that the North will tolerate
no measures that tend to perpetuate the degradation
of the negro.—A 'iglu-American 7 imes.