The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-23
THE NEW YORK PRESS.
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rh. ImpenchmsBt OIGioulty -" Old
Thad's" Opinions.

THE impeachment OImouIty -" old
ThRd's" Opinions.
FTon, me Herald
The venerable and skilful leader of the
uopse of Representatives, familiarly known as
,,OId Thad," has deliberately given up the
case. and fatty declared to the House that in
consequence of divisions in the Republican
oamp President Johnson will not and cannot
ba impeached. In his last Veto Message he is
holder and more defiant than in any preceding
veto and broadly hints that Congress need not
lool, TO him for the faithful execution of this
Supplementary Reconstruction bill. What,
then. is to be done Mr.. Stevens, while one
of the most earnest believers in the policy and
necessity of Mr.. Johnsons removal, says that
tbis thing oanrot be done; that the friends of
tba measure are urging it in vain; that there
arc unseen agencies at work-invisible powers
which will prevent the impeachment; that the
composition of the House is such as to prevent
an Indictment, and the composition of the
Senate is such as to prevent a conviction if the
accused shall be brought to trial before that
body.
These are extraordinary declarations in the
face of the recent solid vote of the Repubi-
cans of both Houses in passing their new bill
here, and no signs of wavering, and yet Mr..
Stevens declares that 'it is impossible to
pierce the panoply which surrounds the
White House." What is he limiting at Is
it "the cohesive power of the public plum
der ?" Evidently so. But how does it affect
the composition of the two Houses 1t must
be in the bargaining for and selling of offices.
We heard, too, at the last session, that good
deal of this bargaining between the White
IN nc Spnafa in
its combinations, was going on upon the prin-
eiple of giving something to Dick in order to
get something for Tom and Harry. We ap-
prehend, however, that if Mr.. Stevens thinks
that the anti-impeachment wind in Congress
sits in this quarter, he is wide OF the mark. In
his late conversation at Lancaster, with one
of our travelling correspondents, we guess the
old oommoner was nearer the solution OF the
mystery.
There are, in short, at least two rival Repub-
lioan factions mining and countermining for
the next Presidency. We will call them the
radical and conservative, or the Chase and the
Grant factions. The first is a powerful body,
backed by the national banks and the bulk of
all the other agents connected with Mr..
Chase's financial system, while the conserva-
tive faction have but little to depend upon
beyond the popularity of General Grant. AS
between these rival factions, President John
son may be set down as a cipher or an
unknown quantity which may be thrown out
of the estimate, if we simply look at his politi-
cal notions. This impeachment difficulty lies
with sold Ben Wade" President of the
Senate, and in the event of the removal of
Andrew Johnson, President of the United
States.
But why any clashing in regard to this sub
stitution of Wade for Johnson in the White
House We have only to suppose that Mr..
Wade, as radical, is a supporter of Chief
Justice Chase for the succession, to get at the
key to the difficulty. Thus, if promoted to the
White House, there is reason to fear, not so
much that President Wade will make clean
sweep of President Johnson's pet office
holders, but that radicals, who can pronounce
the shibboleth of Chief Justice Chase as a
Presidential candidate, will be appointed to fill
all these vacancies, from the Minister to Eng
land down to the Postmaster at Confederate
Cross Roads. 1t is said that "Old Benz
aspires to the Executive Mansion himself, but
we apprehend that his real position is that OF
armOr-bearer to the Chief Justice. In either
capacity, however, he would be stumbling
block in the White House to the Republican
conservatives, and before the meeting of the
grand party convention, in his distribution OF
the spoils, he might throw all their fat in the
fire.
1t follows, therefore, that their policy is tC
let well enough alone. If President johnson
is not much inclined to help them on the
Grant platform, he is not disposed to hur
them while his implacable hostility to the
radical impeachment faction is so much cleal
gain. The Republican conservatives, accord
ingly, cannot find in the evidence taken by
the Judiciary Committee of the House, nor il
that within the last few days furnished b,
Mr.. Johnson himself anything calling for hi
removal from Office. Herein no doubt, lie
that peculiar composition of the House and q
the Senate so mysteriously limited at by sol
Thad." The Chase radicals, it is feared, Wi
hold the winning trump card with the transfe
of Mr.. Wade to the place held by "the man a
the other end of the avenue;' and so the ant
Chase conservatives are opposed to the i'm
peachment remedy for Mr. Johnson's follie
and blunders.
How this difficulty is to be solved remain
to be seen. As the radicals, however, in bot
Houses have the majority of their party vote
they have the power to make a settlemer
through party caucus, and ''to this alternf
tive they may come at last" If so, Andrey
Johnson, as the next branch of the programm
In order, will be indicted by the House an
tried and removed by the Senate. Otherwis,
we shall have split in the Republican party
whereby President Johnson may TO the end
his term WELD the balance of power.
Emigration,
Ts.osn fHe Times