The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-21 00:00:00

SENATOR FESSENDEN'S LETTER•

The Boston invitation to Senator Fessendon was
as follows :
" Dear Sir—The undersigned members of the Na-
tional Republican party, are desirous of expiessing to you
our sense of the value of your public services. While
some of us strongly dissent from the conclusion at which
you arrived with regard to the conviction of President
Johnson, we all heartily recognise and admire your cou-
rage and conscientiousness under circumstances of peculiar
difficulty. We beg the honour of your company at a
public dinner to be given in the city of Roston, at such
time as may suit your convenience."
These were the signatures appended :
Alexander H. Bullock, George Tyler Bigelow' Thomas
Hill, Emory Washburn, Richard H. Dana, jun., Amos A.
Lawrence, John M. Forbes, E. R. Mudge, Henry Lee,
Peleg W. Chandler, Edward S. Rand, William Dwight,
S. R. Payson, Francis Parkman, J. Elliot Cabot, J. Rus-
sell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton, Asa Gray, John H.
Clifford, Augustine Heard, George William Bond, Robert
M. Mason, F. W. Lincoln, jun., George 0. Shattuck,
George S. Hale, George H. Gordon, Samuel Eliot, Har-
rison Ritchie, Francis Brooks, Edward Atkinson, Francis
E. Parker, Edward Bangs, Charles W. Storey, Theo-
dore Lyman, Charles F. Adams, jun., J. L. Stackpole,
Charles Allen, Samuel Bowles, Joshua C. Stone, A. G.
Browne, jun., Waldo Higginson, Charles S. Storrow, Chas.
H. Dalton, Edmund Dwight, Henry G. Clark, C. William
Loring, George Higginson, Benjamin S. Rotch, S. Froth-
ingham, jun., George N. Macey, Francis W. Hurd, J. M.
Day, Robert T. Paine, jun., John Jeffries, jun., Patrick T.
Jackson, Stephen H. Bullard, John Gardner, Edward 0.
Cabot, John C. Ropes, D. A. Dwight, Algernon Coolidge,
B. F. Nourse, Greeley S. Curtis, A. J. C. Sowdou, James
J. Storrow, George B. Chase, George W. Baldwin, R. M.
Morse, jun., Lemuel Shaw, Henry Van Brunt, Walbridge
A. Field, Hamilton A. Hill.

Mr. Fessenden, in reply, occupies two long news-
paper columns. lie does not disguise the satisfac-

tion the invitation has given,- though compelled to
decline it. Impeachment for all charges prior to
,Mr. Stanton's affair had already bee negatived.
Many were under the impression that the Pre-
sident was on trial for all offence; both of com-
mission and omission. Tae excitement was
great, and the clamour for conviction at
any price was urged on by place-seekers and gam-
blers. The immediate cause of Impeachment was
the removal of.the Secret try of War. Two learned
and honourable Senators, not including " the
seven," announced their opinion that the President
was not guilty on that pu:iit, and it was not consi-
dered in them even an error of judgment, much less
a betrayal of party, so long as they were able to vote
for conviction on the eleventh Article. There are
cases in which party loses its claim upon the repre-
sentatives, and is subordinated to the public good,
and in which every individual must judge for him-
self ; and this was such an occasion. The Consti-

tution of tbo tribunal and the oath imposed, im-
pressed him with the belief that in corning to a conclu-
sion he was bound to lay aside prejudice against the
individual, and to try him solely on the facts and
misdemeanours charged in the Articles—in a word,
the matter was entirely above party consideration,
therefore his decision of guilt or innocence upon
those Articles must be his own, and alone—party
newspapers and party meetings had no right to dic-
tate ; in a word, the matter was beyond and
above party consideration. " All I claim for
my opinion is justice, and that my reasons
may be considered the true ones ; nor do
I consider my self entitled to any special credit
for courage in the discharge of an imperative duty.
A man in public life does not willingly place him-
self in antagonism with his political friends or
hazard the loss of public favour, but, however pain-
ful, one thing alone the people had a right to ex-
peet,—that in discharging the great trust they had
committed to my hands, I should shrink from no
responsibility which that trust imposed, and allow
no coward fear of personal consequences to lead me
astray from the path of official duty; and I flattered
—perhaps deluded—myself with the hope that the
testimony of a life, including more than fourteen
years of consecutive public service, would protect
me from the vile calumnies of those who sought
and affected to find for a course of action by which
I could gain nothing and lose much motives cri-
minal and mean. This hope was founded on a
belief in the intelligence and candour of the
American people, who seldom fail eventually to
justify those who serve them faithfully. You do
not, I am sure, overrate the importance of pre-
serving and supporting judicial independence and
judicial integrity, Permit me to say that Legisla-
tive independence is of equal value ; not that inde-
pendence which defies the popular will, or disre-
gards public opinion, but that which prefers a con-
sciousness of integrity to popular applause. In our
country the inducement to sacrifice the right to the
expedient, especially in party questions, are suffi-
ciently strong to preclude all reasonable apprehen-
sions of a wilful disregard of constituencies. It is
easy and pleasant to float with the current. It may
not always be pleasant to reflect that, by so doing,
a bad precedent has been established, or a blow
struck, the evil consequence of which may be felt in
all future time. No sacrifice should ever be made
to great principles to serve temporary expediency ;
but, as in the recent conflict of arms, the patriotism
and energy of the people carried them through
safely and triumphantly, so I trust and believe their
calmness and moderation in the exercise of political
power will, in the end, soften the asperities and
smooth the troubled waters of civil strife."

By a recent Act of Congress Mrs. Ella Z. Hobart
receives her salary due as army chaplain during the war,
the amount being the same as that allowed to men in simi-
lar positions. Although President Lincoln endorsed her
application, Mr. Stanton refused to recognize the validity.
of the commission, which, therefore, the Governor of Wis-
consin declined to grant.

•
The Revolution is very severe on the Hon. Lewis
Selye, Representative for New York, whom it styles "a
rich, old, whisky sop," having made half a million dollars
in the liquor traffic. Mr. Selye's offence is the part he
has taken against the Twenty per Cent. Increase in
the Salary Bill, which was amended so as to include
the women clerks. Mr. Selye appears to have been
as indiscreet as earnest iu his opposition, having said
all manner of wicked things of these clerks in particular,
and of that sort of employment for women in general.
Acting on the rule that it is safe to distrust the morals of
men whom you hear speaking against Women's Rights,
" the old whisky sop" is condemned. _ _ _

General Mg-Actlan and family have arrived at the
baths, St. Moritz, in'the Engadine, Switzerland.

Jefferson Davis, on June 27, while coming down
stairs with one of his children in his arms, in the hotel at
Lenoxville, fell, and somewhat injured his back. lie was
unable to attend the convocation of Bishop's College.
The newspapers are teeming with references to econo-
my in tea by co-operation. Horninan and Co. have for 30
years co• operated through Agents to supply tea on more
advantageous terms than by the ordinary. channel; their tea
reaches the consumer in the same pure state as it leaves the
grower, as it is secured iu pack*.