The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-19

the charges made against MN by members
Of the majority in their official speeches shall
be officially and publicly withdrawn. We
demand that Benjamin Loan, late of the
Missouri militia, and now member of Con-
gress shall be called upon for evidence in
support of his atrocious allegation that Pre-
sident Johnson was q fellow-cOnspiratOr with
Wilkes Booth and Atzerodt in the assa ssina-
tiOn of Mr.. Lincoln; and that, failing to pro-
Suee such evidence, General Loan shall be
expelled the House and forever disqualified
from holding any position of honor or trust
under the Government he has attempted TO
disgrace in the person of its Chief Magistrate.
The charges hurled against the President by
that section of Congress which has Mr.. Ste
Vens, of Pennsylvania, for its leader, are of
too gross a character to be let die without
due trial. Either they must be substantiated
Nv impeachment and by evidence before the
proper tribunal, resulting in the removal of
President Johnson from an Office which he
shall have been proved unit to FILL or the
men who have made these charges upon insuf-
fcient evidence, with which they dare not go
into court, should every one Of them be
branded on the forehead with the letters "P
S." standing for "Periured Slanderer," by
the hand of some convicted murderer whose
sentence of death should be remitted in con-
sideration of his good work as the brander of
criminals a thousand-fold more guilty than
himself. The common murderer only Stays
an individual, or perhaps massacres family
as was the case with Antoine Probst, whose
head is now on exhibition in the Anatomical
Museum on Broadway. But men who would
sully the escutcheOn of the United States by
charging its Chief Magistrate with crimes
which they cannot prOve-even with conni-
vance in murder to aid his own ambition-for
such men there should of right be a whip
placed in every honest hand ''to lash the ras
Gals naked through the world"
If President Johnson be guilty, we say let
him be impeached, tried, convicted, and pun
ished by removal. But if not guilty as he
must be held until the contrary shall have
been proven, then let his malicious and recl1-
less accusers not escape the condemnation
which is due to the most enormous crime of
this sort to be found in modern history. If to
libel or sander an individual who can only be
hurt himself or in his immediate family be an
Offense punishable with fine and imprison-
ment, what award shall outraged Justice make
where whole nation is hbelled in the person
of its chief ruler, and where the experiment of
our free government is held up to odium
throughout the civilized earth, as having re-
suited, though less than a century old, in
placing common conspirator, traitor, assas
sin, perjurer, and usurper-for all these
charges are on record against Mr.. Johnson-in
that Office which George Washington once
filed
There can be no compromise in regard to
this question. No pretense of ''magnanimous
forbearance' must be allowed to the men who
have put forward such atrociOus and stag
gering charges. If they have permitted par
tisan hatred to betray them into making accu-
sations having no substance save in their own
disordered fancies the American people owe it
TO their self-respect and national pride that the
proper retraction shall be made in complete
Vindication of President Johnson's character.
tba Of thpp / these ph N
any reasonable portion of them, be true, it is
equally due to the American people, and in
fact essential to our safety as a nation, that
the ''great criminal of the White House'-as
Mr.. johnson has been called-shall be re-
moved as rapidly as can be done by law from
the Office he has disgraced, and from the
power which he has been welding to the de-
triment of the country in the present, and
with view to our future subjugatiOn.
These remarks are made as a commentary
on the liberal hints now being circulated
through the papers representing the party Of
which Mr.. Thaddeus Stevens is the acknow-
ledged leader, that ''some compromise is pro-
bable," under which the dominant party in
Congress will ''magnanimously forbear'' press
ing the charges against President Johnson to
so extreme an issue as impeachment Against
such ''magnanimity' we protest, and against
any such compromise we shall never cease
TO clamor-calling upon the whole Conserva-
tive press and true Conservative party to join
in denouncing the abominable fraud of this
transparent juggle.
Suppose an Individual should be arrested
and flung into jail ON er pdrte affdavits, having
their origin in personal hostility, or jealousy,
or recklessness. Suppose these afidavits of
accusation everywhere published and very
widely believed; and then picture the 'magna-
nimity" of the accusers in failing to appear
before the Grand Jury when duly summoned
by the District Attorney to make good their
charges, or at least to give such prima tacie
evidence IN their support as might Justify
remitting the case to its proper court for trial
Yet this is precisely what the dominant party
in Congress now seem anxious to do with
regard to the President of the United States:
and it is as friends of the Observation-Disclosures
him completely innocent of all such charges
though responsible for many bad mistakes o.
Judgment when acting under Secretary Sew.
ards advice-that we now urge his being
given an early opportunity by Impeachment
and trial to clear up his official and persona
record; and to place his accusers in the pillory
proper to hbellers who are without defense
and who have been instigated in their attacks
by malignity against political opponent, anC
by avarice tempting them to seize and retain
the spoils of Office at whatever cost.
If guilty, let President Johnson be removed
from the Executive Mansion, while the natiol
''walks backward with averted gaze to hide tn
shame" But if he be innocent--as the lax
binds every man to regard even the commones
criminal until the contrary shall have bee
established-then let not his accusers evad
the responsibility of their position by pleadin
that they have evidence to convict, but are to