The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-16

ana successfully Tor the strengthening oil the
country's finances and the improvement of its
credit.
Ashley and the Progress of ImpeaC aChmont.
From The Herald.
According to our advices from Washington,
Ashley and his colleagues have by no means
managed the preliminaries for the impeach-
ment of President Johnson in the wisest way.
So far they seem to have evinced neither skill
nor knowledge in working up" the case. On
the contrary, they have resorted, we under
stand to expedients of more than doubtful
propriety. If as it is alleged, they have
selected the notorious Detective Baker as their
chief agent and charged him specially with
hunting up private material for accusations
against the President. we shall be warranted
in suggesting that they might find a still more
convenient tool for their purposes in Sanford
Conover, who convicted himself of perjury,
and whose case is now up before the Supreme
Court, in the Judiciary Committee conspiracy
so fully exposed by the Herald.
Conover could as readily fabricate any
amount of false testimony required against
Andy Johnson as against JEFF Davis, when the
latter was charged with completely in the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Conover
might swear to attested copies of the letters
which it is said that Ashley and his friends
have insinuated were written during the
Rebellion by Mr.. johnson to Mr. Davis. Con-
over might even write the original letters him
self if Mr.. Ashley preferred these to copies.
The fact is that all this is a miserably small
way of attaining the object proposed. An
entire collection of the private letters written
by Mr.. Johnson before he became the occupant
of the White House would be utterly imma-
terial and irrelevant. The real grounds for
impeachment must rest solely on the public
conduct of Mr.. Johnson as the successor of
President Lincoln.
We have contended, and we still contend,
that the assumption of legislative powers by
the President of the United States forms a suf-
| fcient basis for impeachment President john
son possessed no more authority to reconstruct
the South according to plan of his own inven-
ton, to dictate terms of restoration to the
seeded States, to appoint Governors, or,
briefly, in any other way to usurp the func
| tons of Congress in the work of reviving the
Onion, than he has now to admit Colorado and
Nebraska without the consent of Congress.
| General Dix, in his speech at the opening of
| the National Union Convention at Philadel-
phia, acknowledged that in calling on the Con-
! ederated States to accept certain conditions
| for their readmissiOn as members of the Union,
| the President had acted "not in pursuance of
| any constitutional powers" IL the President
| himself had acknowledged this when Congress
reassembled, and if he had gracefully yielded
to its, opposition to his illegal if well-intended
attempts at reconstruction, he would have
| exhibited more tact and less obstinacy.
He you'd have spared himself and the
country the disagreeable and dangerous COM
! plicatons which ensued and are still impend-
ing. He might have seized an early opportu-
nifty to escape from the consequences of his
mistaken action. Even now it is not too late
for him to recognize his error and to find a
happy issue out of his difficulties. Why
should he blindly dash his head against the
threatening wall Of impeachment? Why not
open his eyes to the actual situation and
master 1t by heroic craftsmanship? A few
rapid and vigorous flank movements might
then surprise, disconcert, and annihilate all
such pititul opponents as Ashley and his con-
federates will appear to be if they persist in
the underhanded intrigues attributed to them.
II, ON the other hand the President obsti-
nately persists in opposing the national will as
represented in Congress, and if he usurps
Legislative powers, he must, as the COnstitu-
tlon provides, be impeaehed, and, on convic-
ton, removed. And if Ashley, with the help
Oh Baker or Conover, mismanages the prelimi-
nar1es OF impeachment, let him be set aside fol
some one who knows how to act in more dis
Greet and dignifed manner
: The National Bank Combination.