Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-08-15
The AshIey-Conover Conspirac,

The Ashley-COnOver Conspiracy.
The National Inteltigencer of the 10th in
stant has this article on the charges against
Congressman ASHLEY of an endeavor to
make evidence to impeach President JOHN
SON, full account of which will be found
in the STATESMAN. of to-day.
The InteAigencer says: @ ...-.l5
We make an official publication Shis
morning, in which we feel that we are
shocking every honest man in Christen-
dom. Has not the air been noisome tor
months with the poisonous but obscure
odor OF Internal machination? Has not
the most artful and experienced purjurer
of the age, notoriously such, then in Jail
awaiting sentence as such, constantly and
publicly received the countenance and
sympathy of members of Congress, and of
the Judiciary committee at that? Has he
not held his levees all summer in prison,
and has not one of the counsel in the Sur
ratt trial-he that says he had .'the princi-
pal management of the preparation of the
case certified that Durham, the per-
jurer, was his counsellor? Until to-day,
has any person in the country been able
to comprehend the influence which could
put SO long an interval between his con-
viction and his incarceration in the peni-
Tertiary? Is it not notorious that wit
paraded before men dishonest enough to
practice guilty reserve, but honest enough
to shrink with Indignation from taking
part in their subornation? Is it not
known that these members were willing to
have them brought up to swear but that
some power withheld them for some con-
tipgency? And what was that? Their
''counselloy" on the Surratt trial says it was
because the baEgain was his release, and
then his men might testify. They failed to
get him cleared, for the District Attorneys
office was not currupted, and so failed at
each step. Then, with unspeakable diabol-
ism, they contrived the plan for defrauding
the President out of pardon, and with this
object Stanton's military magistrate and a
hitherto respectable member of the bar
were not afraid nor ashamed to recommend
this wretch for that clemency through
which he was to become capable and will
ling to work their plot. Will the cOnspir-
ators dare pretend that Dunham's disclos-
ure is from an unclean source, and therefore
incredible? ? From what source did Riddle
get his ''valuable information ?" His-'va
liable suggestions pinot only in collect
iffg witnesses for his own use, but in ac-
quiring knowledge of ''those called for
the defense?" Dunham was credible to
him then. So credible that his 'informa-
tion AMI suggestions" reached point of
dignity to entitle the most dangerous per-
jurer of history to forgiveness and
enlargement. Messrs. Holt and Rid
die know their own papers. They
are not Dunham's. But Mr.. Ashley
too, expressly asks them to make those pa
pers. He knows that Durham is clearly
entitled to pardon.' That is, Dunham is
so useful in bringing murderers and trail
tors to Justice, that he ought to be par
doned and kept free tor use. just so. In
the high character, as an instrument of in-
ion, of frt1f bft
tion which all these distinguished friends
of justice have given him, he speaks now
for his friend Ashly and Butler and others.
Unless they have found that he was not
useful on the Surratt trial, and that their
representations of his usefulness are false
hoods, thev are still on the record for his
parllon They call still for the removal Cf
the brand burned upon his brow by jury,
so that he may restify. They call him, in
a word, to testify against themselves. He
does so. heterogeneous argument of - pub
lie policy" OF GeDeral-Judge Holt, dem
onstrates that the President ought now to
pardon him, for the purpose of qualifying
him to support indictments against these
conspirators. The poison was mixed for
Andrew johnson. 1t now blanches the
lips of the mixers, who ought to be made
to swallow it. But what was the plot?
There has been talk of impeachment; and
this stupendous project was to impeach and
remove. But was that all What impeach
and remove President who procured the
assassination of his predecessor for the pur-
pose of succeeding him, and who was
guilty, moreover, of fiat treason, and stop
there? Would the country tolerate him
alive? If he was removed on such charges,
the least indulgence Tor such hideous crime
would prove the false witness. He must,
then, be speedily dispatched, to show that
they believed the evidence. This would
be absolutely iecessary. But would they
Iun the risk of a common law trial with
its constitutional guards against fraud and
fabrication? They could not dare thus risk
exposure. Yet he must be put to death,
else the people will suspect he was inno-
cent. How short the way out OF all the
difficulty. Here is Bureau of Military
Justice in which to crystalize all that may
bubble up from corruption; here is an eX-
perienced and hardened slayer of uncon-
yicted men, and butcher of whole armies
Intellectually to make hero ct Butler, who
commands at the War Department.; and
here are a new President, new Cabinet,
and dismayed court. Such were the con-
veniences for the Presidents murder and
the final extinction of the ConStitu ton.
Rnt more is coming. We leave the record
to speak for itself for the present.
ONE of the Berlin papers asserts that
Count Bismarck refused to treat with the