Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-05-06
THE CASE BEFORE THE SENATE
AND RUMP REVOLUTIONS.

To-day the Court of Impeachment will
receive the articles for its action, and a
contest will commence between the revo"
lutionary leaders who desire to hasten
decision, and the more cautious aud poli~
tic elements in the Radical party, who
prefer to deliberate upon the mOmentous
question presented for their solution.
This latter consists of two classes--one
which is actuated by considerations of
mere expediency and is calculating the
probable effect a verdict of conviction
will have upon political movements; and
another which, we believe, under the ex.
haustive discussion it has received from
the Presidents counsel, is seriously pon~
dering the matter in the light of duty. The
fate of the accused is in a balance which
a feather may turn. If two or three
prominent and influential Radical Sena-
tors pronounce such an opinion, as the
telegraph rumors that Mr.. Fessenden has
prepared, more than the requisite seven
will say not guilty, and if this be the re"
suit on one article, the others will, in all
probability, be voted down. From the
day of its commencement, Impeachment
has been losing ground, and unless the
drill sergeants of party can maintain an
unbroken line among the Senatorial lea
ders, it may fail at last We must say,
however, that the indications are that the
caucus has already written the President
down, and the country has no reason to
expect, that in a matter held to be vital
to the interests of party, its dictates
will be rejected
This procedure thus far of this Ameri-
can Rump Congress, bears a close re-
sembIance to similar proceedings of the
other two famous Rumps in modern his-
tory-Cromwelr Rump Parliament,
which after excluding fifty of its mem
bers, brought Charles the First to trial
before il, and sent him to the headsman,
and the Rump French National Assem-
bly,, which first expelled the Notables,
and then guillotined Louis the Sixteenth
The American Rump began, as did Its
prototypes, by curtailing the powers OF
the Executive like them it has con.
tinued by arraigning the incumbent of
that office for resistance TO its usurpa-
tons; and it threatens to conclude, as
they did, by overthrowing 1t altogether.
England went under a PrOtectorate COM
posed of military officers and Drawing
religious fanatics, with Cromwell at their
head France experienced for few
years the tender government of Com
mittee Of Public Safety, under which
thousands of its citizens were slalni and
the United States Of America will pass
into the hands of a Congressional junta,
with a creature of its ON in the Execu-
tive chair, whose cOunsels viii be IN
spired by spirit as revolutionary and
destructive as that which marked either
of the eras referred TO- The similarity
does not cease here The Rumps were
all born Of certain phases Of fanaticism,
the English of Puritan higotry the
French of fantastic assertion of the
sacred rights of man and the Ameri-
can of a vile compound Of both. They
moved to their objects by the same steps
tho subsection Of the executive and
judicial departments of government to
legislative dictation. Cromwell obeycd
the Rump until he grew strong enough to
dispense it with the bayo2et The ~
rectory abolished courts in France unul
Napoleon in turn abolished it. Tn e Amer
lean Judiciary is becoming subsequent
to the legislature, and already Congress
has before it Massachusetts petition
for the adjustment Of the Presidency as
useless, cumbersome, copy Of royalty
and dangerous to the republic. The
deposition Of the present incumbent viii
virtually do SO, ard will pave the way for
its formal extinction as department of
government The historical parallel
points to legislative tyranny, to end in
anarchy and confusion, to exist until the
people rise in their might and inaugu'