Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-03-12

and no would be the death.knell Of the
Republican party az The ensuing cleo
tons. The truth Il, Republican Sena-
tors and the Republican party are now
on board ship in storm, and there
| IL no possible way Of taking her into q
safe harbor but through the channel OF
impeachment, and that is just az appa'
rent 10 Senators as to Radical agitators.
We have u reason to fear the Senate,
even admitting the faint,heartedness
and red-tape wosshipping propensities
OF Republican members OF that body.
| The Radical masses stand behind urging
them forward, and they had much rather
face the shattered fragments OF routed
Conservatism than meet the frowns and
indignation of the invincible host OF
Radicalism. rHH4'ON i
Again, Wendell Phillips, one of the
very boldest OF the arch'consplrators
against the liberties of the people and
the government rs il was founded, in o
lecture delivered last Monday in Cincin-
natl, decidedly speaks out the same de-
termination of himself and party to-
override all obstacles, and disregard all
laws aud rules whatsoever. The very
laws of a common humanity, Of nations
and of God himself, must bend before
the higher law of party necessity. And
hence the avowal is unblushiugly made.
In the name Of the phrenzied Radical
masses and Of the usurping Rump, Mr.
Phillips, in his lecture, spoke as follows:
NY wish to impeach the President two
wears ago was not technical. 1t was be-
cause the man, either by his wishes or
his perverseness, had set himself up sys-
tematically to save the South from the
verdict of history, and from the necessity
of the epoch in which we are living. This
is his great crime. Every single act
since the summer of 1865 points in that
direction. He has been impeached for a
single legal, technical offense, and an
article in one of your morning journals,
which undertakes to arraign my right to
speak about impeachment, goes on with
great ignorance to state that no matter
how foolish q President has been, he
could not be arraigned for his follies
or his weakness, or his errors. He
must have committed some great, fragrant
and malignant act There was never a
greater Misunderstanding of the nature
of impeachment There never was q
more perfect forgetfulness of the fact that |
impeachment is the act of the reserved |
sovereignty of the nation, superior to,
and sweeping outside of, all its laws,
guided by no precedent, responsible to no |
Judge, bound to give no warning, at lib |
erty to violate every legislative princi-
pie, no CO post tdcto rule binding it. You
cannot be indicted for an act for which |
the statute has not previously warned
you that you would be a felon if you com
mitted il; but the nation leaves itself at
no such mercy in regard to its great Judi
cial and Executive officers. Any thing,
which, in the judgment of the people,
makes great judicial or executive mag
istrate unfit for his place-no matter
whether the law has warned him of it or
not, no matter whether it has been de-
scribed in law books or motif is a law
which the people make on the emer-
gency; and the emergency makes the
law. / do not care whether Andrew
johnson has slipped on the statute or
not 1t is very evident from the twenty
four months of his government, that
either from mental or moral incapacity,
he is utterly unable to put himself in the
line with the nations purpose, and the
great nations necessity, and therefore he
ought to go.
The great danger that we are to run is
the six months that are to come. Inn
parchment only opens the door; it only
clears the national honor; it only gives
business an opportunity to move, its
peace and its prosperity. 1t allows cap
ital to pay its great loans, to seek de-
maud but beyond lies the great political
question, and that is whether we have
learned yet what idea to incarnate in our
government What bias to give to the
ideas of State And, politically, we
seem not to have learned them.