American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1867-02-27
THE IMPEACHMENT.

Inc criminal Jolly or the trlendS oil
the President who at the Democratic
Conventions and in such papers as the
Washington Constitutional Union openly
threaten armed resistance if Congress
should exercise its express Constitutions
right of impeachment, has done more to
make an impeachment proba lie than all
other causes together. If Congress can
not take an undeniably Constitutional
step but faction in opposition must in
woke civil war, we ought all to know it
And if it be necessary to impeach the
President in order to prove that fact, by
all means let him be imEsached. From
1860 to the present time the Democratic
party has tried'to carry every election
and to secure all its measures by threat
of civil war. John Van Buren, at the
Cooper Institute, in 1862, and James
Brooks at New Haven, and Edmund
Burke (Phebus Apollo y at Concord, in
1867, resort to the same menace. 1t
should not be disregarded. SRch men
should be taught, whenever they invite
the issue, that tue people of the United
States are not yet Mexicanized, and that
they intend to settle all questions by
peaceful methods until they are openly
opposed, aud will then forcibly overcome
the opposition that peaceful methods may
be resumed,
If the evidence laid before the Judi
ciary Committee shall show that the Pres
ident has unquestionably attempted to
subvert the Government, directly or in
directly, by usurpation or by corruption,
or by inaction, he will be impeached and
tried and If convicted he will be remov-
ed from Office. And whoever undertakes
to resist by arms the process or the deeis>
ion will fare as other rebels have lately
Jared. 1t is one of those great and grave
measures which only an extraordinary
public emergency can justify. 1t is in
deed strictly CONSTITUTIONAL as the war
power is Constitutional If the Con sti>
tutional authority be Extensively denied,
the country may demand that the issue
be raised. But no sensible man can be
indifferent to tn" Importance of such ac-
ton, and will therefore neither passion
ately nor fiippantly invoke it.
This is undoubtedly the attitude of the
country at this moment. Nothing will
change it but the continuous folly of the
Presidents party. II they and he are
wise, they will patiently await the action
of the Committee If the Committee re-
port that ample grounds for impeach-
ment exist, and state their nature so that
the country can clearly comprehend them,
the President, if wisely advised, will
abide by the Constitution and the meth>
o1s it prescribes' That, and that only,
will be proof to the country that he sin
cerely believes in the justice of his posi-
tien. That, and that only, will incline
the country to judge dispassiouately the
evidence and the defense. Mad and reck-
less as his words and measures have been,
fatally encouraging to the rebellious spir.
it, end destructive of the hopes of loyal
and humane citizens, his acts are not of
necessity to dc interpreted as conceived
with an intent Of overthrowing the Cow
ernment. An obstacle TO the loyal and
generous purpose of the country DE plain
ly is; but not an obstacle, obviously. to
be removed by impeachment But the
moment he resists simple Constitutions
al process, that. moment he judges hims
self
If the Judiciary Comraittee shall be
satisfied that the laws of Congress passed
over the presidents veto are made i1op-
erative by his inaction, and that in con>
sequence of that inaction the condition Of
loyal men in the late rebel States is in
tolerable, upon what ground can any body
ask the country to wait two years before
such wrongs are reuiedied? If that shall
be made plain the impeachment will be
carried and unanimously supported by
the country. Eut if, as the President
and the Secretary of State declare, the
laws passed over the veto are faithfully
executed, although, of course, not with
the hearty eo-opefation of approval, then
the impeachment will not hold. This
seems to us to be the substantial point
and we can know the truth not by the
rhetoric ef partisans, but by actual evil
dence. For that, as we have already
| said, we must wait. Nor can any of us
tell vhether the President ought to be
impeachsd until the grounds of the char
ges are repealed in dstail.-Harper's
Weekly.
What is the difference between
summer dress in winter aud an abstracted
| Il .ootl Ono 4 30 .h;~ IL Al ~ -.