The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-19
THE 1MPpAoHMRNT.
From ne Nation.


not very excellent, are talking very u ly OF
impeachlpg the President as soon as Congress
meets. If we are not greatly mistaken, General
Butler has taken the matter up as labor OF
love, and will go into Congress, if he is elected
-as we have no doubt he viii be-charge with
She special duty of getting up the articles and
pushing for ward the proceeding. We think II
very likely that dilieent agitation carried on
during the next two months, combined with the
popular indignation of which Mr.. johnson is
now the object, will result in creating strong
feeling in favor Of having this plan of getting
Jid of him tried Our own views of his fitness
Tor the place he fills are well known. His get
ting into IL at all seems at this moment TO be
really one of the greatest misiortunes that ever
beiell the country-seems, we say, because we
cannot help hoping that, five or ton years hence,
we shall most of us look back on him as "a
blessing in disguise" But still we share to the
full the heartfelt wish which so many people
entertain, that there was some PLAIN and simple
and unobjectonabe mode of relegating hlm TO
private life; but our feelings ought not TO cause
us TO support either the plan OF impeaching
him, or any other plan, without careful con-
slderatiOn OF all that can be saId against 1t as
well as OF all that can be said in favor OF it.
The removal of President OF the United States
by means of judicial sentence is an under
taking too serious, too full of peril to the Gov
ernment, to be lightly entered upon. We see in
various quarters disposition to treat it as
rather happy device for asserting and main
tanning certain political principles than as what
it would also be-a deplorable scandal bring
ing discredlt on popular institutions, aud giving
q still hercer glow to party passions.
A great deal OF the talk about 1t is, of course,
silly talk; a great deal more is designing talk;
but there is also great deal which is the talk
OF able, earnest, and honest men, who see in
Mr.. johnson an offender, from whom they feel
bound, on the highest considerations of public
interest, to take away his power OF mischief
by any means that offer themselves short of
revolution. We trust that these, who are the
only clamorers for Impeachment with whom
there is any use in reasoning, will consider
fairly the objections which lie to any attempt
10 put Mr.. johnson on his trial as a criminal
Tor anything he has yet done. In the first
place, 1t would be impossible, no matter what
the form OF the proceeding might be- to give
1t the character or secure for it the IN morai in.
nuence of purely judlcS, proceeding. 1t
Woulu De regarded by most men, not only in
1his country but throughout the world. as n
party measure, as a mere weapon dra wn from
the panty armory, the dexterous device of an
Irresistible majority to get rid of an opponent
whom, conscentiously, no doubt, they byieyc
to be dangerous to the State.
Mr.. johnson has at his back very large
minority of the Northern people, who think
him not undeserving person. Many even are
possessed with the notion that he is states
man, and it may be questioned If any proceed
ing, however orderly, or formal, or technically
legal, could stamp the character of crime
worthy OF legal penalties, on acts of which so
large proportion of the population approve.
The prosecution would, therefore, by all sup.
gorters OF Mr.. yohnson'S policy, North aud
South, be considered simply piece OF party
persecution, which they could not resist but
would hope some day to retaiate The affair
you'd therefore, become, as Andrew Jackson's
dismissal of Federal office-holders for simple
difference of opinion has become a precedent
which we fear all parties would try to folio
WIN hdellty. In times of excitement the DIS
nent would be part of the programme Of the
opposition, whenever they saw q chance of
securing two-thirds OF the Senate and a ma
jority OF the House, and the country would be
ssseouenrly convulsed by a struggle which must
In its very nature, be little short of reyou
hionary.
Ne,eeTver, it ought not to be forgotten that we
are all, Congress and public together, In some
degree morally responsible for the Presidents
xaisdeeds. We knew what his antecedents were,
and hat his character was, when we elected
him Vice-Presdent We chose, from motives OF
expediency, to forget or to overlook, in cOnside-
ration OF his newborn devotion to freedom, the
long years which he had passed in the service
Of slavery, the violence of his temper the mar
rowness of his mind, and the sienderness of his
education, and deliberately made him the posi-
bic successor to an Office for whose vast aud
varied responsibilities all human virtues and
gifts would hardly suffice. He succeeded to it,
too, at period when the public mind had be-
come confused by four years of war a. 10 the
proper limits Of the Executive authority. Mr..
Lincoln fell when in the possession of almost
uictatorial power, which those who acted in his
name sometimes abused, and exercise of which
congress ana une public were dIspo7oo6s, with
each succeeding year Of commotion rather to
applaud than to cavil at,
When Mr.. johnson stepped into his shoes, the
popular horror and indignation over the assas-
sination were so great, the anxiety as to the
future 30 general, that there did not appear in
any quarter the slightest disposition to tie the
Presidential hands. When he issued his pro-
clamations appointing provisional governors,
and proceeded to the work of Reorganization"
slnele-handed, without waiting for or seeking
lhe advice OF Congress, which of us cried
'Hold"-which OF us all who now so iercely
condemn him warned him that he was trans.
gressing the bounds of his authority? A wise,
cautious, weltrained man, conscious of the
greatness of his trust would have been too
deeply impressed with the magnitude of his
task TO have entered upon it without asking the
people, In all reverence and all modesty, what
~ sought or expected of him-what was the pre-
else nature OF the prize for which it had split so
Mucn blood and lavished so much treasure.
But Mr.: johnson is not a wise, cautior~
Mell-trained man; he is-Well, W"
what he is. ' =,
He has grossly abusedN y oil 10, S,nou
power with which ~ 80 "'
technically unlp 30 nowar Rat n VA
SnF INV &c armed him; and it wa
80 NTful power, as we now ackno "
IN our opinion, If he were trie
.,ndemned for his abuse OF 1t, 1t would b
Nv a technical condemnation, whlch Woul
-Teaect almost as much dlscreulI on US as ga mn
ais abuse of the appointing power eIl canhoe OF
4ao stTonply condemned Nobody reels mo-
S1o S1.onalU ahout it than we do; but who taug
Presidents the trick which ne Is now pay ~ M !
Let the politician who can lay MS manu- ,a,I On :
6eart and say that he has ever made an nSnt ne !
nnSeaVor to raise the public service out OF =
enue"teS DI;tico and TO maintain the great pr