The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-03

each member vieing with every other in
the variety and enormity of the crimes he
could lay to the Presidents charge, and In
the unmeasured vehemence and force Of
the language in which his accusations were
clothed. The President was openly ao-
oused, by these representatives Of the people,
in the high council chamber Of the ma
tion, with personal drunkenness, prOhigacy
and venality Of the most shocking character;
with bribery, robbery, and betrayal OF the
public trusts; with conspiracy against the
peace, rights, and liberties Of the nation; with
having organized and stimulated mobs and
riots in Memphis and New Orleans, for the
purpose of again embroiling the nation in
civil war; with having oonspired with the
conquered Rebels of the South to reverse the
victory achieved by the Union arms, and with
| every other crime, official and personal, civil,
political, and private, which ingenuity could
| invent or the base imaginati0ns of virulent
and relentless enemies could conceive. Natu-
rally enough, these accusations from such
/ high quarters, made with so much Of clamo-
rous confidence, ard countenanced by the NAL
adroit conduct of the President himself, COM
manded to very great extent the credenoe
and respect of the public; and it is scarcely
| surprising that a committee of inquiry should
| have been ordered, with the very wide and
hearty approval of the public.
This inquiry was put into the hands OF the
very men who had been most vehement in
| their accusations. They had unchecked con-
troll of the machinery by which the truth Of
their charges were to be established. They
called whatever witnesses they liked, asked
| whatever questions they liked, and shaped
the whole inquisition, in all particulars, to
suit themselves. The record shows that they
were quite as remOrseless and unsorupulous
in their efforts to prove their charges as they
had been in makings them. No testimony
M
character was too vile or too notorious to be
used in their hands against the President.
Shameless bawds, acknowledged pimps and
spies, confessed and convicted perjurers were
summoned to the witness-box, and invited to
share in the great political hunt. Leading
questions were asked, the vaguest hearsay
was admitte as evidence and every rule
and requirement which the lowest criminal
court in the land would scrupulously enforce
for the protection of the meanest wretch
accused of crime, were thrown aside and
utterly disregarded in this Investigation. The
party press was kept increasingly at work
during all this time, in keeping the public
mind in state of rancorous excitement and
in sharpening the public appetite for revenge.
And the leading radicals in Congress-, feeling
very Justly that they were on trial in this
matter quite as much as the President, fol-
lowed up the crusade they had set on foot
with unceasing assiduity, by speeches, let
ters, and every other mode of influence at their
command.
The result is at last before the country. A
majority OF the Committee has been induced,
by means of which the country would be very
glad to have more satisfactory information, to
report in favor of impeachment. But the
evidence on which this report processes to be
based has gone out with it; and we are not
surprised by the assurances which reach us
from every quarter, that the feeling produced
throughout the whole country is one of utter
disgust and revulsion. The empty, shallow,
baseless nature of the whole crusade stands
revealed. The portentous charges against
| the President-the accusations which were
| expected to overwhelm him with the wrath of
| an aroused nation, turn out to be nothing
more than the bowling clamors Of partisan
hate. Of proof of the charges preferred, there
is absolutely none. Of all the allegations
against the President-in matters either of
political design or of personal conduot-there
Is not one that is not either scattered to the
winds, or infinitely weakened by the very evil
| dence adduced to sustain it,
We regard the President as beyend the
reach of political redemption. His own errors
| of judgment, temper, and conduct have rem
dered it quite impossible for any political
| party ever to espouse his cause, and his public
life will probably close with his present term
of office. But both personally and officially he
will profit greatly by the investigation, relent-
less and pitiless as it has been, which his ma
hgnant enemies have made into his character
and conduct. And all the country now asks
at the hands OF Congress is, that it will bury
| this whole offensive and pestilent proceeding
as speedily as possible, out of the public sight.