Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-04-30
The Impeachment.
10 New York ExPress.]

From the New York Express.
There are two points among many
Others which ought to make impeachment
Senators, acting as judges, pause before
they convict, even if they hate, johnson.
The first is the reduction of the Exec
ulive branch Of the Government to the
Legislative; or, rather the destruction,
by the Legislative, of the Executive
branch of the Government-with the
consequent fall of the Judiciary, which,
already, in its fright, with q judgment on
hand in the McCsrdle case against the
legislative military reconstruction laws,
has been afraid to pronounce it. Gov
ernments cannot exist among the Anglo
Saxon race made up of one branch, as
were the French conventions of Danton,
Marat, Robespierre, St. Just, and the like.
To exist in one branch only, they must
exist 10 one person only, as in Russia or
Turkey. Our ancestors tried the expe-
riment under Cromwell, and ended, first,
in the Cromwellian despotism, and, next,
in the despotism of Charles III.
The second point is-that convic-.
ton, by party vote, on party grounds,
for party purposes only, is q revolution
in the whole structure of our Govern
ment Congress as much needs restraint
as the Executive. Congress abounds
with corrupt and rotten members, who
are ever pressing upon the Executive
Departments corrupt and rotten claims,
and the independence of the Department
is only maintained by the independence
of the Executive, of Congress. "Con-
viction," that is, custer, for party pur-
poses, destroys all Executive independ-
ence hereafter, and forces the Executive
to yield. to all the claims Of Congress-
men. Yielding to such claims, is a
complete yield of the Executive to the
Legislative Government. No restraint
will exist hereafter upon or against Con-
gress or Congressman. The millions in
the. Treasury at once are put at their
personal disposal.
The three branches of our government,
beautifully orgsnizedin the Constitution,
have existed here gloriously since 1877
the Judiciary, as the helm regulating
the others, and itself regulated by the
other two branches. By great misfor-
tune the party in power for the first time,
in the history of the Government, has
two thirds of both Houses of Congress,
created in the civil war, by the secession,
or annihilation, of eleven or twelve
Southern States = for Tennessee and
West Virginia are the creation but OF
minorities, through test oaths, which dis
qualify thousands of voters--and Mis-
souri, may be added to them. A Congress
Rump; the offspring of revolution, is
supreme now over both the Judiciary and
the Executive. If there are not certain
Senators enough left who have the vir-
tue to act as judges, and not as mere
politicians, the Government is gone.
The form NAV be left, as under the I'm
nerator, the Emperor, the General of the
Army of Rome, and as under the French
people chosen Napoleon, but the Govern
ment is not the less gone. The prece-
dent to be established is this:
The agitation every year, and every
day, of Presidential election, through
the form Of impeachment and convic-
ton. There will be no rest for commerce,
or trade, or the people. An eternal Pres
idential election will be going on in the
House of Representatives and IN the
Coroto of tba TTnitad Stataa