Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-09-05
COLUMBUS, O., SATURDAY MORNING. sEPrEMBER s. 1868.

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on board an elderly gentlemen of decent
appearance, who talked very loud He |
was declaiming against Henderson's antic-
pated vote of acquittal, and said if he
gave it he would be hanged on his return
to Missouri. A member from one of the
Eastern States, at home judge, who sat
on the other side of the car, went and sat
something to him in an undertone, to which
he replied loudly and emphatically: ."Oh,
damn him, have told him so." Now,
what says the bench and bar of our coun-
try to this made of conducting criminal
trial in this our, highest tribunal, whose
judgments are irreversible, and whose ac-
ton challenges the judgment of the civil
lied world? Would you wish that our
Minister in London should, in your name,
avow and defend it.? non 10 sIai5r0 .rsis..
This was the same, thongh on world
wide theatre, as If the prosecuting attorney,
when trying criminal case before ira
verse jury, should, by public advertise
ment call upon the, friends Of jurymen
and ask them to prevail on the Jury, by,
entreaties or threats, TO find verdict of
guilty. I1. Emsd 81 srslE9b 1577sS iii1pa
The action of Gen.Sehenek amuses me-
have known him for half 2 Lifetime, an
honorable member of the bar, bred and
| practiced in the high morality Of the pro-
fession. The wild tale of the German stu
dents who, through diaboiical Influence,
changed souls, must have been verified In
him. Five years ago, or at any time when
his soul was his own, he would have moved
to expel member Of the bar who commit
have felt dishonored- by sitting with him at
| the same counsel table. no s'gyTIIAq5 d"
General Schenck signed these letters and
4 dispatches as Chairman of the Republican
Central Committee. It was not his act
alone, but the act of the party, in the
4 okoof of foc
sional morality. / find quite appropriate
to the matter the following item from the
Cincinnati Commercial of yesterdays: m sl1s
| Judge Stowe. of Pittsburgh, on Saturday rem
dered decision. granting new trial in an import;
| with one Of the jurors. The case has been tried
| three times before" 1aeg ip-ti i@ fjs iii i-
Judge Stowe is evidently "a mile post on
a deserted road" He has not been taught
judicial morality "by the war;" -
Most of the leading members of the Sem
ate, by their speeches, and nearly the whole
body, by their vote on the amendment to
the Tenure-of-O Office Act, were committed
to the proposition that the President had a
| right, by his own mere act, to remove the
Secretary of War. He did formally remove
him, and the next day as formally nOmin
ated successor, and sent, with all due dis
patch, his nomination to the Senate. Some
delay. however, occurred, by reason of the
early adjournment of that body. The OF
flee of Secretary of War was now vacant; I;
the Office building, with its books, papers,
seals, and other muniments of office, were
in the hands of lawless intruder, who was
instructed to "stick."
| In this state of things the President ap-
pointed one of the officers of the Depart
ment to take charge of it pro tenspore, until
a regular nomination should be confirmed
| by the Senate. This fact was charged in
one OF the articles of impeachment as a
high misdemeanor, and the Republican
Senators, all except seven. including those
who declared and voted that the President
| had full power to remove, voted this at
tempt to take care of the Department, its
seal, its correspondence, and its archives,
during the two davs of inevitable vacancy,
high misdemeanor. 1t was not trivial
offense. this attempt to take care Of the
the executive Office, but high misdemea-
nor for which he ought to be removed from
office, and give place to the man who had
told the intruder to "stick." This vote
was given under the solemnities of an oath
! to do impartial justice. The like is not to
be found in any tribunal anywhere. GER
1 tainly not in our own or in English history.
Stafford was impeaehedyby the House of
| Commons at a time when party spirit ran
4 highest and widest in England, but they
failed to prove him guilty of any crime
known to the laws. This being settled,
they knew conviction impossible, as the
Peersyin entering on the trial, pledge their
honor that they will do impartial justice.
1 The articles of impeachment were, there
| fore, withdrawn, and bill of attainder
substituted, which, as it involved no oath
4 and no pledge of honor, was readily passed.
i This vote of our Senators on the inn
bpeachment, sworn, as they were, to do i'm
partial Justice, is one Of the legitimate
consequences of the new code OF morals
| which Senator Morton boasts of having
loa, H. q
self in other instances most worthy of note
i in logic as we'll as morals. He says in his
speech of January 4, 1868, that President
tJohnson's proclamation, under which the
seeded States were reorganized. was more
radical than that prepared by Mr., Lincoln;
more, indeed, than the project of Winter
IDavis; and If it had been submitted to
Congress before it was carried into effect,
i would have been well. But tbe Constitu-
ton requires that the United States shall
guarantee to each State Republican form
of Governments; and Mr.. Morton says tit
Twas not until a year and half after the
passage of the constitutional amendment
through the House, that Congress came to
Il the conclusion that we could execute the
guarantee without raising up new class
of loyalz voters in the States." Now,
wherein did the new constitutions of these
i ten States-reorganiZed upon model more
4 intensely Republican or Radical than Pres
lQ6QC LinCOfnS or even w luCcT DdVlS pro-
Il ljrct-wherein did they depart from repub-
lican form? That which the Constitution
authorizes and enjoins us to guarantee is
the form. 1t gives no authority to touch
1 the internal administration OF the govern
ment of any of the States; on the contrary
it reserves that power to the several States.
This pretense of right to interfere with the
local governments of the States Is mise
rable Sophism, resting on false assump-
tion. 1t is not true, as is assumed, that any
one of these States, when interfered with
by Congress, had not a republican form of
i government, or that any one of them at
tempted to adopt any other form. The
forms were various, but all republican, like
the constitutions of the original States at
the time they adopted this guarantee; and
Congress, when they interfered, under pre-
! tense of executing this guarantee, destroy
ed the actual republican form, and i'm
posed on the States, in its stead, a mill
tary despotism. It were idle to assert the
contrary; the events are recent; they
! occurred in the presence OF US ALL
and stand for the information of present
andtuture ages, recorded in our annals. 1t
is strange to hear it pretended by intelli-
gent men in the presence of thinking,
reasoning public. that the placing OF ten
States under absolute military rule is a
legitimate carrying out of the constitu-
tional provision, which requires the United
States to guarantee to each State repub-
lican form of government. The appeal to
the guarantee was simply false pretense !;
the object unmistakably was not to secure
TO those States republican forms of govern
ment, but government in form and fact
which would secure their seventy votes to
continue the Republican party in power.
To excuse the arbitrary measures taken to
effect this object, facts are perverted, Ian
i guage wrested from it's true meaning, and
the rights which the Constitution was
framed to secure are secuted and despised.
i Mr.. Morton admits that the Crittenden
resolutions announced to a pledge that,
having put down the rebellion, we would
not disturb the domestic Institutions of the
Statas hIit restnre them to their com nstitu=