The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-04-10
From tie N Y Herald.
The EMlpe0CMMClliN FniLiia.e.

Benjamin Franklins idea of impeachment
was quantity honest one. Knowing to what
extent the tendency to clamor against author
! ity might go, and that the accusation of DO
| litical opponents are groundless as a rule, he
urged in the convention that framed the con-
stitution an argument in favor of impeach-
ment drawn from that knowledge. Others
favored impeachment as means ofasserting
the supremacy of the law-as a means of
Furnishing treason-punishing the abuse of
| power-punishing ambitious assumption
In the general view impeachment was always
punishment Franklin favored it as
means ofexplodipg unfounded charges against
| the EXecutive-as the true way in which the
President might put before the nation the ex
| position of the moves that had governed him
| in cases where his acts had been misunder-
stood or misrepresentation the means OF
proving his honesty. Franklin urged in-
parchment that the President might have
''the opportunity ofVindicating his character"
and that there might be national inquest
for CHS honorable acquttal where he should
be unjustly accused"
! The impeachment trial wonderfully sus-
| tains prosaic Old Bens view of this great
national process. There is no punishment in
the case at ALL it is all vindication. For months
the President has been held up by bitter DO
litical opponents as the most atrocious Grim
! inal; and it has been vehcmently declared that
the safety of the government depended upon
his removal So persistent, so positive, SO
extrayagant have been the declarations against
him of the radical party, that had there never
been an impeachment trial it would never
have been possible to quite cfface from the
mind of the people all that has been said the
impression would lave gone down to poster
ity that in view of such denuncation there
must really have been grave acts of official
misconduct in the Presidents career. But
! impeachment has brought the accusers into
court; it has given them the chance to propose
their charges formally and produce evidence.
They have now nearly concluded their labors.
and with what results? One more obvious
than all others-the yindication ofthc Presi-
dent They have done their utmost and find
themselves utterly unable to prove anything
to his prejudice unable to show any reason
why he should be displaced, why he has not
been good and faithful servant of the peo-
pie. Impeachment has absolutely no case at
all. Its allegations were pitiful enough, and
it cannot even prove those. All the evidence
of guilt it has produced to this hour reacts
against it and proves the contrary to what
it desires. Buffers effort to prove conspi-
racy has made it as clear as sunlight that
there was no conspiracy, and that wonderful
impeacher was himself ashamed of the evil
dence he had brought and tried to cover his
shame with laugh.
But exactly in proportion as the radicals
find themselves unable to carry impeachment
by evidence and the forms of justice, so they
become more energetic in their attempts to
carry it by bullying and outrage. Old Ste
vens' threat against any Senator who would
''dare" to vote against impeachment seemed
at the time it was made to awaken the Senate
to some sentiment of the position in which
it was thereby put before the country There
was some appearance that repulsion of that
old virago's domineering might stimulate the
court to an honest discharge of its duty; and
we may hope that the last efforts to influence
q verdict on matters beyond the record may
have similar result We hear it said that
General Grant finds it not inconsistent with
his duty as a soldier to announce it as his
opinion that the only hope for the peace of
the country is the success of the pending i'm
parchment trial" Thus it is held there is
mo room for doubt as to the duty of the Sen
ate" OF course the allegation in regard to
Grant is an invention. He never said such
a thing and never used words that could be
fairly construed to such shape. But we
see here the whole radical plea and PLAN
The radical cry to the Senate is, if you cannot
convict the President on the evidence, con-
vict him anyhow because General Grant
thinks you ought to. General Grants opin-
ions arc of more account than the evidence,
therefore when you know what he thinks
there can be mo room for doubt as to your
duty"