The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-03-26
ar WHEELING W. NAs, THURSDAY MORNING. MARCH 1868
TsenaioriaI Juryn,en.
From the Springfield Republican, Or

From the Springfield Republican, (RepJI
1t is pretty plain that the Republican
pressgeherally throughout the country
is making up q, ,bundle of Feds and get
lting them I'm lpickle for Vthe backs oi
such Senators as shall give trouble OF
itbes final. question: Of Mr.. Johnson''
guilt or innocence. 1t seems to be i'm
agined that the severest kind of parts
/ discipline will be perfectly 6pprepriatl
TO such recnsanCy, and that the repre-
sentatives of the people-or more prop
erly, of the States-are fairly subject tC
the same criticism when sitting as the
judges of the President, as when con
curing with the House in bill of sup
ply, or advising and approving Execu'
tive nominations. Even now we car
hear an occasional crack of the party
whip, not upon the back of Senator
"a yet, but in the air, Just to try the
snapper-perhaps intended, also, as a
sort of suggestion to the wavering oI
certain contingencies, and of what the
painful duty Of the press might become
The language of the party leaders il
the House is bolder still. Mr.. Stevens
and his associates just want to see the
man "whO dares" to falter in this crisis
They have already stigmat:zed several
Senators of the nOblest and bravest rec.
ord as untrusty and wavering because
they have ventured to deport them.
sell eS with something like judicial pro.
priety. Is this the thing; Are the Pres
ident's judges bosnd by party ties and
amena6le to party discipline
Often and lr me-. hnya 20 L.,
occasion to protest against subservitnce
TO political taskmasterS, and tame obe-
dience to caucus and convention, il is
impossible not to recognize the import
auce of concert of actien in politics,
and the duty of merging miAor differ
ences of belief at critical juuctures.
There is no doubt that representative
fairly incurs a responsibility whenever
he refuses to fight on the same general
field, and under the same general orders,
as the mass of those with whom he
agrees in sentiment and purpose-a
responsibility which he may take, and
is bound to take, on occasion, but a re-
sponsibility still; and the burden of
proof rests on him. The members of
the House of Representatives had q per-
feet right to yield to party considera-
tiOns in the vote upon the resolution
10 impeach. 1t was political measure
purely, and judicial impartiality was
not demanded of them. Any man who
thought that the best interests of the
whole country were bound up with the
success of his party wOuld have been
perfectly justified in voting for i'm
peachment for such reasons. OF course,
it coula only be for the advantage of
his party where there was a fair show
of guilt; but the particular proofs he
would not be called upon to examine.
The Senate, however, becomes a
court, whenever it sits for the trial of
the President. 1t is not common-law
court, to be sure. 1t is not bound by
the ordinary rules of procedure, or re-
stricted to certain lines of evidence.
BIT just so far as it differs from other
courts, IL differs in being more solemn, and
in bringing a greater ieeight Of resp0nSi.
bility upon its members. A Senator vot-
ing upon the question of the Presi-
dents guilt has no more right 10 be infu-
eHced by party or political considerations
than he rOuld, as pirate eitiseA sitting
in the jury bor, in a case Of murder. He
may, he must, if he is honest, respect
erery sc,Wple Of his owR conscience,
erery doubt Of his OwR mind. He may, he
Dt,tSt, gire the accused the benefit of all
chances and contingencies. He need not,
he cannot cOnscieRtiOuSy pay the slightest
regard to party erigencies. Not public
policy, but personal gaih, is the QMos''o"
he il s.rorr to dercTmtne. Now, to say,
that, of thirty or forty men, all
patriotic and intelligent,
not one can honestly form differ
ent opinion from the majority,
upon great body of evidence; that
not one can, under the influence of
peculiar legal or constitutional views,
dissent, in ease which is wholly based
upon what the correspondent of the
-1nt-SIarery Standard scornfully calls
purely technical grounds"-to say this
is to contradict the commonest expert
ence of human nature. We should be
very glad if all the Republican mem-
bers of the Senate voted the same way
from conviction; but we trust none will
be driven to it by popular clamOr, or by
the fear OF. party discipline.