Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-05-05
EVARTS ON BUTLER AND BOUT
WE'LL,
and COseusslOn-Empeae
meu1 ia an Astronomical Light.

conspicuous in our history, 10 be scrllti-
nized by more professional eyes, by the at
| tention of more scholars at home and
abroad, TO be preserved in more libraries,
to be Judged Of as a national trait, national
scale, and a national criterion foreyer-pre-
sents the unexampled spectacle of prose
cution which overreaches judgment from
the very beginning, and invades, impugns,
and Expresses at every stage the victim
which it pursnes. Now, the duty of con-
straint upon prosecuting authority, under
government Of law, pursuing only public
justice, is scarcely less strict and severe
than that which rests upon the Judge HIM
self To select evidence that is not peril
nent, 10 exclude evidence, knowing that il
bears upon The inquiry, 10 restrict evidence,
kno sing that the field is thus Chased against
the trhe point Of justice, is no part of
prosecuting aulhority's duty or power.
Whatever may be permitted in the contests
OF the forum and tie zeal OF s,,liteiiGiag
lawyers for contending clients, there is no
such authority, no such duty, no such per-
mission for public prosecutor. Much less
when the proofs have been thus kept mar
rowed, when the charges are thus precise
and technical, is il permissible for prose-
cutting authority TO enlarge the area of de-
clamation and invective. Much less is it
suitable for public prosecutor to inspire
in the minds of the court prejudice and
extrayagant jurisdiction. Now it has
usually been supposed that on an actual
trial involving serious consequences, loren
sic discussion was the true method of deal
ing with the subject; and we lawyers APP
pearing for the President, being, as Mr.
Manager Butler has been polite enough to
say, attorneys whose practice 10 the law has
sharpened but not enlarged their intellect"
have conhned ourselves to this method offor-
ensic discussion. But we have learned here
that there is another method of forensic
controversy, which may be called the
method of conclusion. Now | understand
the method of conclusion to be to make a
demonstration in the vicinity of the object
of attack, whereas the method of discussion
is to penetrate the position, and, if success
ful, capture it, The Chinese method of
warfare is the method of conclusion, and
consists of a great braying of trumpets,
sounding of gOngs, aud shouts and shrieks
in the neighborhOod of the opposing force
When all this rolls away and the air is
freer, the effect is TO be watched for. But
it has been reserved to US in our modern
warfare, as illustrated here in the rebel
lion, to present a more singular and mo
table instance of the method of warfare by
concussion than ever has been known be-
fore. A fort impregnable by the methods
of discussion that Is, penetrating and cap
turing it, has been on a large scale at
tempted to be captured by the method of
conclusion, and some hundreds of tons of
gunpowder placed in a vessel near the
walls of the fort has been made the means
to the conclusion of this vast experiment.
dissatisfied with that trial and its results,
the honorable manager who opened this
case seems to have repeated the experiment
in the vicinity of the Senate. Laughter
While the air was filled with epithets, the
dome shook with invective, wretchedness,
misery, suffering, and blood were made the
means of this explosive mixture; and
here we are, surviving the conclusion, aud
after all reduced to the humble and homeIy
method of discussion which belongs to
attorneys whose intellects have been
sharpened, but not enlarged by the practice
of law" General and continuous laugh
ter.
BOUTWELL,.
may, as conveniently at this point as
afterwards, pay some attention to the as
Economical punishment which the learned
and honorable manager Mr.. Boutwell,
thinks should be applied to this novel case
of impeachment. Cicero, think il is, who
says that a lawyer should know everything,
for, sooner or later, there ia no fact in
history, in science, or in human knowledge
| that will not come into play in his argu-
! being devoted to a profession which
| shaTpens and does not enlarge the mind, |
can admire without enYying the superior
knowledge evinced by the honorable man
| ager. But, nevertheless, while
some of his colleagues were paying atten-
ton to an unoccupied and unappropriated
! island on the surface of the seas, Mr.. Man
ager Boutwell,, more ambitious, had dis
! covered an untenanted and unappropriated
region in the skies, laughter, reserved,
| he would have us think, in the final coun-
| ellis of the Almighty, as a place of punish
| ment for convicted and deposed American
| Presidents. Laughter. Now, at first /
! thought that his mind had become 80 en-
| iarged that il was not sharp enough to
! observe that the Constitution had limited
! the punishment, laughter; but, on refec-
! ton, / saw that be was as legal and logical
! as he was ambitious and astronomical; for
| the Constitution has said removal from
| Office" and has put no limit to the dis
lance of removal. Great laughter. So,
| without shedding drop of his blood, or
taking penny of his property, or ironing
| his limbs, he is sentenced TO removal from
office and transportation 10 the Skies
| Laughter. This is the great undertake
ing; and if the learned manager can only
| get over the obstacles OF the laws of nature,
| the Constitution won't stand in his way.
! Laughter. l can think of no method but
i that the CONFUSION of the earth that should
project the deposed President to this infn-
itely distant space but a shock of nature
of so vast an energy and so great A result
might unsettle even the so firm members Of
Congress. Laughter How
shall we accomplish it2 Why, in the first
/ place, nobody knows where that space is
| but the learned manager himself, laugh
ter, and he is the necessary deputy to exc
| cute the judgment of the court. Let it,
then, be provided that, in case of your sem
tence of deposition and removal from of
| fee, the honorable, the astromical manager
shall take it into his own hands the execu-
| llOu Dl AAtS HtuttliGt- W itfi the IFtSiItnt
made fast to his broad and strong shout
| ders, and having already essayed the fight
BY Imagination, better prepared to execute
il in form-taking advantage Of ladders,
as far as ladders would 60, to the top of this
high Capitol, and spurning then with his
feet the Goddess of Liberty, let him set out
upon his fight laughter j while the
Houses Of Congress, and "all the people of
the United States" shall shout "Sic itHr
ad astra p Laughter, loud and long
continued. Here an oppressive doubt
strikes me. How will the manager get
back How, when be gets beyond the
power of gravitation to restore him, viii
he get back And SO ambitious wing as
his could never stoop to a downward fight !
No doubt, as he passes through the ex-
panse, thai famous question of Carlyle, by
which he points out the littleness Of human