Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-01-29
COLUMBUS, OHIO, TUESDAY MORNIN'
.G9lo Statesrlrarl|I.,
TMEHMPEAul'IENr QUESTION.
English View of the Snbject--A ReVO-
'-i luton in FrOgress, ,i ,,r f...
[From the London Tlmes. Januarr 1O.l-

1
telegraph show that the well-known phrase
of 1902 may be applied in all its meaning to
the course of events in America. A revo-
luton Is in progress there. The House of
| Representatives has taken the first step to-
ward the removal of the President from
office. Mr.. johnson stands in the way Of
the Republican party. lie is the Monsieur
Veto't OF the Union, and he must be got rid
Of He has been guilty of the crime OF
forming an opiniGh for himself, and that
opinion does not conform to the sentiment
of the majority of Congress. Whether the
opinion was right or wrong, Just or unjust,
1t is not for us to inquire. The important
points are that it was an independent opin-
ion; that Mr. johnson thought he was a
President with well-defned duties and re-
sponsiblities, instead of a constitutional
King bound to accept and follow the advice
of Ministers possessing the confidence of
Legislative Assembly; that the independ-
ent opinion formed in the pursuit, as he
thus conceived, of.his duty conflicts with
that of Congress; and that popular AS
sembly will not brook the existence of a
permanent obstacle to its will. According
| ly, Mr.. johnson is to be impeached. Tho
| House of Representatives has ordered a
committee to report on the o1fenseS of the
| President, and the Radical party are deter
mined. we are assured, to press on the inn
parchment, of which this is the first step, to
| its "bitter end" . .....
| The members of the House have return
ed to Washington after their short Christ
mas recess, more bent than ever on estab
fishing their own supremacy. The i'm
peachment of President is not, indeed, an
event to be ranked in the same category
with the trial of King; even when con-
summated, the appropriate punishment Of
| the offender Is simply deposition from
office and disqualification for future en-
plOyment: yet 10 is so foreign to aohdt lcas once
The temper Of american citizens, that any step
to,0Grds it betOkeaS a profound change in their
character. We are driven to the conclusion
that the revolution is bearing fruit. 1t is
true that Mr.. johnson is not hedged round
| by the divinity which made loyalty to a
| Stuart or Bourbon the creed and passion
Of multitudes, but it may be boldly asserted
that a successful impeachment of the Pres-
dent is impossible without a wrench of that
Constitution which the Americans were
wont to idolize as divine. Those who have
Initiated the impeachmentmust be resolved
| to carry it through, no matter how tlimsy
the charges preferred against the President,
or what constitutional difficulties may
stand in the way of their purpose. What
sudden provOcation has hurried the House
of Representatives to a step which few
weeks since would have been considered
impossible? The telegram from our cor
respondent perhaps supplies the answer.
The President has vetoed the Negro
| Suffrage bill for the District of Columbia,
and we are warranted in looking upon
this act as the exciting cause of the i'm
peachment. In one point of view, this ex
| PLANTATION, If sound, may appear to detract
| from our estimate of the Importance OF the
step taken by the House of Representa-
tives. The House is, to say the least, a
somewhat eccentric body. 1t thanked Com
modore Wilkes in hot haste for an act i'm
mediately afterward pronounced illegal by
Mr.. Lincoln and his Cabinet. 1t adopted
without discussion the amendment, or
rather the repeal, of the Neutrality laws,
prompted by Gen. Banks, which has since
| been quietly shelved In the Senate. In the
week before Christmas it was seduced into
passing ludicrous resolution solemnly
commencing the tone OF the national
voice towards the Republic of Mexico"
Knowing all this, it may be said that the
instruction to the impeachment committee
| Is mere splenetic resolution. The Presi-
dent, in perfect consistency with his former
acts, vetoed the Suffrage bill, and the
House boiled over. 1t had reached the
term of its patience. Mr.. JOhnsOn's veto
was au idle form, but it was an act of op-
position to the majority and an impeach-
ment Immediately followed. But, in truth,
the comparatively trifling matter which
has been made the occasion of the impeach-
ment, the feebleness of the Indictment
against the President, and the obstacles
presented by the Constitution to the sue
cess of the impeachment, only heighten
our sense of the revolutionary character
of the impeachment itself. Ii the law
and the Constitution are to be observed,
what ground is there upon which reason
able men can rely that the impeachment
may prove successful? Mr.. Wendell, Phil
lips, the leader of the most advanced Sec
tiOn OF the Republican party, and one of
the first to recommend extreme measures,
is for impeaching Mr.. Johnson upon "his
instincts Falstaff was coward upon
'insinct," bat IL is not easy to believe that any
legal tribunal can recognise ''insttncts" as suf-
fcient evidence Of crin,indlity. Yet this is all
that Mr.. Phillips has to adduce. ''If my
instincts be true" says the orator, sit will
be found that from the time the rebellion
was suppressed, Mr., johnson was in league
with traitors" General Butler, next in
Importance as, an advocate of an impeach-
ment, is little more definite in his charg-
es, bat the more definite he becomes the more un-
satisfactory is his case. 1t is an article of ac-
ctisatiOn with the former commander at
New Orleans that hespeeches of Mr.. john
son during his Chicago tour were indecent.
They degraded the office of President aud
exposed it to public ridicule. An impeach-
ment of public officer tor an offense
against good taste is somewhat of novelty,
and the novelty is not diminished when we
consider who is the accuser. General But
ler has, however, another charge. Mr. John
son has appointed his own friends to offices
of State, If this be an offense 1t is one OF
which every President within living MEM
ory has been guilty, but it is scarcely neces-
sary to point out how impossible itwould be
to make such charge ground of condem-
nation. Yet it is upon allegations like
these that the House of Representatives has
instructed q committee of its own body to
inquireinto the crimes of the President, and
that the Republican party has resolved to
proceed to extremities. The futility OF these
articles OF indictmentought to be sufficient
to insure its failure before any, competent
tribunal; but the founders Of the Republic
took care to guard against any passing ex-
cess of popular excitement by making im-
peachment in all cases difficult process.
The impeachment must be conducted by
the House of Representatives, before the
Senate sitting as Judges under the presi-
dency of the Chief Justice Of the Supreme
Court of the Union, and the Constitution
prescribes that no person shall be convicted
without the concurrence of two-thirds of
the members present, sworn to give true
verdict upon the evidence before them.
The events of this session, grave as they
have been, will not allow us to believe that
two. thirds of the Senate will cOncur in