The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-02-26
THE WASHINGTON 1HrAxY.

The situation at Washington is wholly IN.
paralleled in the history Of civilized nations.
| The effrontery of the Grant-Stanton insur-
| gents against the executive head Of the gov
eminent has discarded its hast shred Of
| decency. Stanton, who can be nothing in
law and under the Constitution but the mill
tary clerk Of the President, violently dispos-
sesses the latter of the war Office building
There he camps, feeds, fortifes, exults and
| threatens. Had a faithful and efficient vindi-
cation of executive authority and of national
dignity been At hand. bis carcass would have
been stretched at the threshold of the pre-
misses he was violating, like that Of any other
burglar and outlaw. '-'n-',rr ,s17A.a ~
If the people of the North are not pro-
foundly aroused by what is passing in WASH
ington, it is yain perhaps, to expect that any
thing can stir them to come to the rescue Of
constitutional liberty and of the good fame
Of American nationality. Nothing but the
fear that public opinion may be provoked to
resentment sterner than words and votes CT
rebule. deters the revolutionary conspirators
from opening all the food gates of villainy. Of
atrocity, of partisan madness, and fendish
hnaticism. If they have not yet adopted the
guillotine as political engine, they have re-
trained simply because they suspected that
the popular mind was not sufficiently besotted
and barbarized to tolerate its use. Only this
suspicion stands between their vengeance and
the lives of those who dare to oppose their wild
and ferocious career. Should they conclude
thst public condemnation would 60 no further
than empty protests, their hesitation would
cease, and the country would be drenched
with the blood of their political victims. The
present scene in Washington is but the be-
ginning of saturnalia in which the knave
and the bigot, the sneak and the highway
man, the imposter, the perjurer. and Che cut
throat have combined to see how far they
may go in outraging decency, in betraying
and defling high Office. in shattering the
foundations Of the republic, without putting
upon public patience more than it will bear.
Atpresent, however, the boldest among them
are not confident that they can proceed much
further with IMMUNITY. This doubt was in
dicated in the Inauguration of impeachment
on the Oath inst. When it is considered that
the vote was rushed through by that desperate
oldprecipitator, Thaddeus Stevens, at the in
tensest white heat of which the, Republican
majority in the House is capable, the adj
herence to ordinary forms of procedure in
such cases. instead of attempting summary
suspension from Office, is fact of no sumall
significance. 1t may be hence inferred that the /
most extreme of the impeachers are afraid to
try the high-handed measure of superseding
the constitutional executive with a president
od interim, pending the impeachment trial,
even though Grant and Stanton are ready to
summon the whole standing army, if need be,
to eject Mr.. johnson and install Mr.. Wade.
There is reason TO believe, also, that many of
the Republicans in both Houses dread the /
consequences Of giving the reins of executive
authority, in such a conjecture as this, to a
public man of Mr.. Wade's temper and tenden-
cies. Vulgar and egotistical, bold and ambi-
tious, Astounding in rude energy and self-as-
sertion not unmixed with shrewdness and
tact, it cal. hardly be supposed that, once in
the presidential chair, he would be content to |
regard himself as the mere puppet Of congress
sional dictation, and that he would either
forego the legitimate prerogatives of the Office |
or WELD them as an incumbent placed there |
for no other purpose than to keep the seat |
warm for Cen Grant or Mr.. Chase. He has |
coveted the presidency himself, as Thaddeus |
Stevens has asserted, and as Mr.. Chase
and other presidential aspirants wen |
know; and he covets it much more than ever
since he has lost reelection to the Senate
rom Ohio. All these considerations make
against the vigorous prosecution and the sue
cessful issue of impeachment before a sena-
torial court presided over by Chief Justice
Chase. Nevertheless, the faction which has
gone into this impeachment cannot afford to
all. They are lost if they recede an inch, or
Miss their mark by q hairs breadth. Like
he mobiles who conspired against Richelieu,
hey are playing for heads, and theirs must
umble if the game goes against them. They
nave got themselves in situation which adj
nits but one line of strategy and that is to
proceed with the resolution to let nothing
heck them, to rush to any extremity, and, if
mpediments cannot otherwise be removed, to |
lew their way to power with the sword. If
impeachment should fail, and the President
,e reinstated and acknowledged in his proper
citations as commander-in-chief of the army,
Grant and Stanton would have reason to call
IN the mountains to cover them, and the
srth to swallow them up; for ignominy would
tick to them like shirts of pitch and fire; and
be brand of public scorn would be so i'm
'rinted on their foreheads that it could not
'e cut out with knife, or burnt ont with
austic, or washed out with tears of guilt and
notification, though they should shed such
ears in rivers.
GREAT SALE OF FURNITURE, Erc.-ThIs day, at
0 O'Clock, at store No. 102 Poydras street, be-
Veen Canp and magazine etreefa Naeoru Mont |