The New York herald., 1868-04-20
NEW YORK HERALD MONDAY April 90 1863 TRIPLE SHEET

ORK HERALD, MONDAY,
of the telegraph, but there win have to be
also close and comprehensive interna-
tional treaties for its management. 1t will
be found impossible to leave this mighty
power and agent of civilization in the
hands of private companies or local monopo-
lies The action of the British government is
but the initiatory step to the governmental
control of telegraphs over the whole world.
America is destined, from its position on the
globe, to be the centre of telegraphic opera
tions and the diffusion of ideas. Should our
government defer taking charge of this vast
system the time will soon come when
imperative necessity will force it to do
SO. Is it not better, then, to assume the con-
troll at once, before greater difficulties and
greater evils than we have noticed arise? If
there be any statesmen in Congress who can
raise themselves above party politics and mar
row local ideas, here is subject on which
they can benefit the whole people, promote
Impeachment ON saturday-The Defence Gag.
ged ON the Most Important Point in the
Case.
impeachment becomes every day more and
more an insult to the commonest sense of fair
play. Managers and radical Senators alike
either suppose the people 30 ignorant of the
prophecies Of trial or SO Indifferent to its
justice that they no longer endeavor to disguise
their outrageous violations of right and decency.
II they even discuss points at issue they do it
with careless irrelevancy that always indicates
their trust to be, not in the force of their argu
ment, but in the vote that is to follow Indeed,
we see in the Senate now the same discourag
ing spectacle that the nation has had before it
all winter in the House of Representatives,
where the partisan power was SO overwhelm-
ingly on one side, so blindly given up to
fixed lead, that it was only necessary for it to
be known that bill was party measurement
what was in ito insure its passage. Leaders
were under no necessity to explain the laws
they proposed, as they had sufficient vote
already paid for. So now in the Senate it is
only necessary for it to be known what the
Managers wish, and they are pretty sureto have
it, Some one Of the counsel for the respondent
proffers testimony that he regards as vital to
his case, and Mr.. Manager Butler ''objects"
quite at random, and, as a matter Of course,
argument is given from the defence, generally
earnest and clear, to show the fitness and
relevancy of the testimony, and the Managers
out of some small lingering regard to formalities
put in an adverse argument and hurry the ques
tion to vote and the vote, strictly radical,
rules the testimony out. Such is the bewitch
ing simplicity of justice in our Senate.
More fragrant than all the previous instances
of this was that given on Saturday, when the
Senate ruled out the testimony of members of
the Cabinet as to the advice that the President
had received from them in regard to the Tenure
of Office law. Mr.. johnson is charged with
intentional violation of the law. His intention
is 80 much the essence of his offence that If he
did not do the acts alleged with intent to viO-
late law they are not criminal. This is the
position taken by the accusers in the impeach-
ment articles. They accuse not only the Presi-
dents acts, which might have been mistakenly
done-they accuse nothing whose criminality
the common fraity of error might palliate-but
they 20 into his mind and charge the very ori-
gin of the evil in wicked intent to knowingly
violate the constitution and the laws. He
must, then, before he could have conceived this
intent, have known that the law in question
was one he was bound to obey and this car
ries the evidence to the formation Of his opin-
ions-what would be reasonable proof of his
deliberately evil intent? If it could be shown
that he had been advised on every hand Of the
binding force of the law; if those who habitu-
ally advise the Executive had told him that
the makers of the law had not transcended
their authority, and he, stubbornly following
his own will, had yet acted in defiance of the
law, that would have been fair evidence
Of his evil intent. Now, the defence
must assume that the prosecution pro-
poses to argue this, perhaps deduce it from
evidence already given. Thus they come for
ward to set up plain evidence to the contrary
They propose to show that it was the uniform
opinion of all who advised the President that
the law was not one he was bound to respect
And the opinions of Cabinet officers are in this
competent evidence, not to show the Senate
that the law was unconstitutional, but to show
the Senate that the President came honestly
by the opinion that the law he is charged with
violating was not law, but an enactment
without force, and one that he was restrained
from obeying by his duty to the paramount
| fundamental law-the constitution.
Such was the testimony proffered by the de-
fence on Saturday. Regarded in any just re-
lation to the charges made, it was so evidently
and clearly relevant on the one important
point in this case that no man honestly using his
own eyes could fail to see its relevancy. Coun-