The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-07-16
In,penehnsent.

Ma. EDIToR While 1t Is understood that
the impeachment of the President has bean
deliberately recommended by four of the sey-
On Republican members of the standing com
mittee OF the House OF Representatives, and
Is favored by a like preponderancs OF the Re-
publican opinion In the body Of the House
and perhaps in the country, and while the
majority opinion manifestly adverse 10 im-
parchment Ia made up in part by those who
would be just as strenuous In defending JED
Davis, TO favor impeachment cannot properly
be considered Republican heresy.
Perhaps II Is too late to impeach Mr.. John.
son. Perhaps what was not done Ia his frat
year OF Office may as well bs dispensed with,
10 hls third am ready to admit that his
powers OF making mischief have been greatly
crcumscrlbed. / can ses that the odium OF
his public acts has drawn the Congress and
the country into advanced and aggressive posi-.
tons they never would have taken but In at-
tagonlsm to him. A nuisance likely TO ex-
pire by early limitation may be endured after
the public have got used to IT, A man going
without his breakfast till twelve o'clock, may
then conclude TO walt for his dinner. But
that don't prove that 1t Is pleasant or salutary
to do without breakfast, or that 1t would have
been unwise to have eaten 10 In season.
Neither does 1t follow If the people conclude
{, worry along with Mr.. johnson throug bis
year and a half of Office, that 1t would have no.
been better to set him aside when he dIsclos-
ed his purpose Of reconstructing the rebellion
instead OF reconstructtng the Union.
Congress was compelled TO do one OF two
things to save the country; turn out the Pres
ident, OF emasculate the presidency. They
chose the latter. Some people may think 1t
would have been better TO get rid of the bad
officer rather than overthrow the good Office;
that it would have wrenched the constitution
less to have displaced an unfaithful ineum-
bent by methods prescribed by itself than so
FAR to have weakened the chief executive or
fee, as TO make 1t contemplate to all who
shall hold It. Undoubtedly the fathers To-
tended to have some other resources against
the Vaccinations OF corrupt officers than to
endure their malleasanc, 10 the end of their
term. .N2'7e 3ti 81
Time will prove all things. Last spring Con
gress dispersed congatulating themselves that
they had bound the Tennessee Sampson With
the withes Of the tenure -ef-oflee law, and the
new ropes OF the military occupation law
They had not all reached home before he calls
in Mr.. Stanbery TO slip knot here and there,
stretches himself and the whole coil lies Ia
broken shoe-strirgs at his feet. Congress has
tens to reassembie, pretty angry but not angry
enough to impeach him. They must put on
few cords more and leave him again.
A burglar puts his foot thIoughmy window
and decamps with only my teaspoons, as I 40
cost him in the early stages OF his operations.
/ put upa wooden shutter and return TO bed
to turn out again and lind him getting through
ahole he has sawed In the shutter with my
large spoons. BY the tine he comes the third
time after the forks and napkin rings I shall
conclude 1t would have been better to have
grabbed him the frst time and sung out fos
the police. Washington has successor Ia Of.
fee whom the national Legislature cannot
trust three months without their personal
oversight lest he do harm to the Republic.
Time will prove all things. Two years ago
1t was awful radicaltsm to call the country re-
lieyed from the invasion of the rebellion
mere territory destitute of the powers Of
States. No convention could have resolved
ii, nor could the naked proposition have COM
manded vote at even the last session OF
Congress. Now 1t Is not only assumed as an
axiom but legislation Is adopted as saiutary
and essential which Is based upon the absc-
lutte subjugatlon of the territory OF ten States
Of the Union. 2a .geF- 4s
But no men get honor or confidence be-
cause their fore-thought and statesmanship
are vindicated by events. Nor do the men,
whose theories prove groundless and whose
prediction Of the future is steadily confuted
by history, lose one particle Of the innate re-
spect which everything that has the hsavi-
ness and stupidity or conservatism Is sure to
command ..... RADICAL.