The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 22, 1868.

THE STATE TRIAL.

The only telegrams referring to the trial received
during the week are dated Washington, April 11
and 15, giving the evidence of General THOMAS,
who deposed that President JOHNSON never ordered
him to employ force to obtain possession of the
War-office ; and of General SHERMAN, who said
that when the PRESIDENT offered him the Secre-
taryship for War Mr. JOHNSON claimed the right,
under the Tenure-of-Office Act, to make an ad
interim appointment, and expressed a wish to get a
case before the Supreme Court. While we write
another has come to hand, dated Washington, 16th

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April, by which we learn that the counsel for the
defence produced evidence to show that the PRE-
SIDENT tried to get a writ of quo warranto to test
STANTON'S right to hold the office of Secretary for
War. We are not aware of any marked change
except a national weariness of the trial. The in-
terest, at first so strong that Senators who had the
disposal of tickets were beset by applicants, is
now so slight that they find no one to take the

yellow placards, and coloured gentlemen grace
the galleries of the Senate 1141. The speech of the
occasion will be that of Mr. WILSON, when he sums

up at the close of the trial ; and it is on it the case
for the Managers will have mainly to rest. The
opening address of General BUTLER was ably and
carefully prepared, occupying three hours in de-
livery. He maintained that the Constitution gives
the PRESIDENT no direct power of removal. It is

clear that no Constitutional Government can grant
to a ruler the unchecked authority of dismissing
Ministers. Mr. BUTLER justly contends that such
a power would be more than kingly ; that is,
where a king is controlled by a Constitution. No
one for a moment contends that a British

Sovereign can, in the face of a four-fifths
majority of the Legislature, dismiss a Minister ;
yet if Mr. JOHNSON'S claim be allowed be has this
right, even while the Parliament is in session.
Suppose that Mr. JOHNSON had this power, and
really entertained the project attributed to him by
the extreme Republican wing, that is of crushing
Congress and establishing himself as Dictator, the
first Minister to be dismissed would be the Secre-

tary for War, and au army officer substituted, whose
main idea was implicit obedience to orders—and
that was exactly the course taken by Mr. JOHNSON.
His next step would be to control the Treasury, so
that the drafts of the officer acting as War Secre-

tary would be honoured, and that also he took.
He would then appoint a Commander to assume
control of the Military Division, with his head-
quarters at Washington, and he would make such a
disposition of the troops that when the emer-
gency came he would command the position, and
this likewise is attributed to him. Any Minister
alarmed at these preparations, who showed a dispo-
sition to resist, would be dismissed and military
officers thrust into their places. If the Senate were
powerless, and this course was in accordance with
law, then we say that ANDREW JOHNSON had but
to carry the army with him to be as great a despot
as auy in the world. We maintain that the Con.
stitution does not permit this ; and neither in spirit
nor in word does it contemplate a President exert-

ing any such authority. Yet it is this for which
Mr. JOHNSON contends; and it is against this that
Congress strives. Those who allege such a design
to be entertained by ANDREW JOHNSON may malign
him, yet it must be acknowledged that his
conduct as well as his declarations have
been suspicious. It cannot be asserted that the
nation, or even Congress, is easily alarmed, for if
there is one danger more than another overshadow-
ing the Republic it is a foolhardy confidence. The
question arises, when Congress legislates to defeat
such an apparent intention, what is a President to
do who is convinced that an Act of the Legislature
violates the Constitution ? The Constitution gives
him a great power in the Veto ; and as his Message
pointing out the defects and illegality of the mea-
sure is published, the nation can express an opinion
and in some degree control Congress. With more
than this power the framers of the Constitution saw
no necessity for clothing Vie Chief Magistrate.
To give him a greater power would be to
put into his hands the means of becoming a
despot; and it was against that these framers
of the Constitution most desired to guard. A
Legislature usurps in a peddling way, but an indi-
vidual by a coup d' Oat. A Legislature steals your
purse, but an individual seizes your person and ap-
propriates your all. A Legislature works through
a century, an individual in a year. It was then
against the latter and not the form3r danger that
provision was made. If a President, after an Act
becomes a law, can pronounce that law to be un-
constitutional, and set it aside till the Supreme
Court, that is Judges appointed by himself and his
predecessors, decide whether it be unconstitutional,
then he has a power far in excess of his veto, and
one nowhere laid down in the Constitution. It is
urged that Congress might pass over the PRESIDENT'S
veto, a measure which, if executed by the PRESI-
DENT, might bring him to the gallows. There is
not a soldier who enters the army, there is not
a sailor who embarks in the fleet, who is not
liable to the same contingency ; nor is there a civil
servant of the United States who may not find
himself amenable to fine and imprisonment for
carrying into effect an Act passed by Congress and
sanctioned by the PRESIDENT. This may be a
defect in the Constitution, but men take the offices
voluntarily, and they hold them at their discretion ;
they can resign if they dread consequences, and re-
signation is as open to the PRESIDENT as to any other
official. In the face of an Act that appear, to
a President to be unconstitutional, he must exercise
his judgment, knowing that if Congress be hostile
he is liable to be impeached for infringing the law.
There was no necessity for removing Mr. STANTON;
he might be personally obnoxious to the PRESI-
DENT, but no one contends that the officer who ad-
ministered during the war, the post then of the
greatest importance to the country, was unfitted to
administer the duties of that office in time of peace.
It was not the necessity, but the innate " cussed-
ness," as Americans call it, of Mr. JOHNSON, which
led to the dilemma. It is contended that Congress
should have waited for Mr. JOHNSON to bring the
question before the Supreme Court, and Impeached
him only if he attempted to bar the way against the
decision by the proper authority. Bat this would
be a direct surrender of the principle contended for,
that no Executive officer has the right when an
Act has become law to set it aside, or to infringe it.
If the PRESIDENT can do this, why not a Secretary,
or any of the hundreds of thousands of the public
employes? Supposing this course to have been
adopted, and the PRESIDENT to have obtained a
decision from the Supreme Court. If favourable he
would then have successfully defied Congress and
the law it had passed over his veto. But what if
the decision were unfavourable ? Could Congress
then proceed to the Impeachment of the PRESI-
DENT ? In our opinion, certainly not ; for he would
then have merely acted on a legal opinion, which
on appeal has been pronounced erroneous, when
he reverses his course in conformity with the law he
can no longer defy. The crime must lie in the in-
tent with which the law was broken ; and that
point is the one which properly comes before the
Senate as an Impeachment Court, and is indepen-
dent of the constitutionality of the law, which is
another question to be decided only by the Supreme
Court. The Pall Mall Gazette appears to suppose
that the PRESIDENT is justified if the Act be uncon-
stitutional, and this is the opinion generally enter-
tained in England. Yet it appears to us bewholly
erroneous. If that were the question, most
certainly the Supreme Court, and not the
Senate, is the proper tribunal to decide it.
"'they impeached him," these are the words
of the Pall Mall, "not hr delaying the referencP
of the matter to the Supreme Court, but for assert-
ing his intention of so referring it." ANDREW
JOHNSON was impeached, as we have no doubt the
writer knows, for infringing the law of the United
States with a criminal intent—the infringement
being the dismissal of the Secretary of War in defi-
ance of the Senate, then in Session, and the appoint-
ment of an officer ad interim of his own selection ;
the intent being to obtain au undue control over
the Army for an ulterior object. It certainly is
provoking to see a newspaper like the Pall Mall
Gazette make a statement that might be ex-
pected in the columns of the Standard, where

it would carry no weight, as being merely
an extreme party view, but which in a journal
professing to treat every question on its own merits
without party bias is calculated to mislead. We
can sympathize with an individual in trouble, but
not with a multitude. The man who fights the
herd—let him be a brigand holding a pass against
a company, or a BO3IBA had he had the heart to die
sword in hand in the struggle to enslave a king-
dom—enlists cictr feelings, and those who do not
take the trouble to understand the quarrel drift to
the side of ANDREW JOHNSON, whom they regard as
a bold partisan leader, unable to withstand a strong
tide of persecution. But in truth ANDREW JOHN-
SON possessed in his bands every element of
success when he commenced, and he has
madly thrown them one by one away. He
has done this, too, in the mere wantonness of
mischief, fighting every one, and throwing mud on
all with whom he came in contact. He could not
even work with the senior counsel he selected, and
although this arty b:3 Judge I3LAcK's fault, it is
not a little strange that so many who associated
themselves with ANDREW JOIINSON should sepa-
rate from him in a blaze of scandal. The
Pall Mall may rely on the fact that it
would have been au easy task for any man
of ordinary ability whose nature was not strongly
spiced with an innate " ugliness " to have got on
with a Congress quite as anxious as he could have
been to reconstruct the Southern States, and give
the nation the repose it sought after its exhausting
war. But, unfortunately for them, the mind of
ANDREW JOHNSON was one that fed upon opposi-
tion. Hot water was the element in which he de-
lighted, and where he disported himself most
joyously when all who came near were scalded.
What he has cost the country it is impossible to
estimate ; what he may cost it it is impossible to
predict. But one lesson he has taught it with which
the journal, written by gentlemen for gentlemen,
will perhaps sympathize, and that is, that the train-
ing of a gentleman is a more necessary qualification
for high office than it had been inclined till now to
admit.—Anglo-Anterican 7 imes.

ground. Indeed, the rural villages of Cosham and
Wymering were long retained and made the scenes
of most desperate encounters, to the infinite delight
of their inhabitants who vociferously applauded
all the furious firing, all the ferocious charging,
and loudly encored each act of personal intrepidity.
But yield they must at last. It is England's for-
tune—the decree of a supreme authority, and the
mighty battle is at an end.
Major-Generals Renny and Sir A. Horsford were
highly successful as commanders of the divisions of
the rebel forces; and ably portrayed the conflicting
emotions of innate love of country and disappoint-
ment at the loss of victory. Major-Generals
Hamilton and Carey were equally effective as
leaders of the victorious patriots. To further par-
ticularise the chief actors in this glorious perform-
ance would be invidious, when all so efficiently
performed their several parts ; but yet we cannot
pass over in silence the astounding pantomime of
the officers of the staff. The way they galloped
about—now here, now there, without any apparent
object, now waving, now pointing their drawn
swords as they rushed onwards in furious race

imparted such charming animation to the scene as
to render them worthy of exceptional commenda-

We have done our best to give a faithful picture
of last Monday's brilliant performance—Easter's
grand review ; and we trust it may be repeated,
and repeated with ever-increasing numbers and
with ever-approaching progress towards perfec-
tion. It is the duty of all our youth to acquire a
thorough training, and it is worthy of attention of
the wealthy to found institutions to assist the needy
to procure the necessary outfit. All principals of
scholastic establishments should be bound to drill
their students, and then, should the necessity occur,
Englishmen may rise as one mm to protect their
native land.—pacing times and Amateur Dramatic
Chronicle.