New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-12-09
THE TNPElcHMEyr QUESTION

The House has closed the Impeachment Ques
ton. AS we expected, the project has been
defeated by a decisive vOte--10S to 81.
We need scarcely say VIC are satisfied
with the result. We have never felt that
good would come from forcing upon the coun-
try an issue which could only postpone recon-
struction, embarrass the finances, and perhaps
impose upon us the responsibility Of meeting a
revolution. We never considered impeachment
as a mere policy. 1t is too high and solemn.
Instead of its being an improper proceed
ing in itself, we have c0ntended that there
is no act more expressly provided in the
Constitution, and that failure to obey this ex-
plicit law would be in the highest degree re-
vOlutonafy. Impeachment is the constitutional
safeguard between the people and a Dictator
ship To regard the Presidency as an intact,
independent Office, responsible only to the
moral influence called " the people, and to a
political mob called convention is to make
our ruler as absolute as the Emperor of China.
Some of the Presidents advisers have not
ceased to urge upon him the inespOnsi
bility of his Office, while earnest men
upon our side cOntcndcd that the real
question was, could Congress refuse to
''impeach the Presidentl' They argued very
Justly that, if we make the precedent that
Presidents may do as they please, then they
may legslate when it suits their fancy, and
cOnstrue the laws when they are in n judicial
humor; they may bring into their high
office the obstnacy of George III, and the
RIGHTEOUSNESS Of George ", and public lib
erty will depend, not upon written law, but
upon the nerve of the first demagoguc who
reaches the White House.
While we admit this, we cannot resist
the conviction that to adopt Impeachment
now, would be to bring upon the con-
try greater evils than those we seek to
avoid. To the Republican party, Mr.. John
son is of more use in the White House than
he would be anywhere else. Impeachment
would make him a martyr while with
no more evidence than this enormous
volume Of testimony, the Sepato could
never convict him. The cOdihy sees in
Mr. johnson an obstinate man who means hon
estly to deal with a question which he Of all
men is the least fitted to decide. To ask
representative of his class in the South to con-
slider the negro question on a liberal basis is
to ask him to befriend a race which has been
a successful rival in labor, although an in
ferOr in the eyes of the law, the church. and
society. We have q President to whom q pre-
JUDGE is a conviction, and in whose mind for
fifty years negro has never been more than
a skilled mule, and we ask him to confer upon
the mule the only right which has kept him
self from political degradation. This has been
the create difficulty with Mr.. johnson; and,
when he finds casuists as ready az Mr..
Black and Mr. Seward, and sophists as eager
to defend his cause as Mr.. Cowan and Mr..
DoOlittle and politicians like Mr.. Raymond and
Mr.. Weed willing to indorse him, and to
promise him the Endorsement Of the Republican
party, we can understand the persistence with
which he clings to his unfortunate and
pernciOus policy. Nor do we place on the
shoulders Of the President all the blame
of the present trouble. He had Repub-
lcans enough to go with him-to cheer
him onto applaud his course as lib
eral and patriotic He found Republican
conventions willing to sustain him, and to
sacrifice the negro, provided our office giving
Caesar with 10000 palpable Offices could be
cOncliated These men only left Mr. johnson
when they saw the cloud of popular wrath ris-
ing over his head. While he was honestly
wrong, they dishonesty followed his lead to
serve their turn upon him. We forget that in
tiayersng his record we traverse a record that
many of our own friends would not care to
face. Long since, when these men were sustain
lng the President. We demonstrated with them