New-York tribune., 1868-03-02
HOW TT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

HOW 1T MIGHT HAVE BEEN.
Fresh from the perusal of newspapers printed
in all parts of the loyal States, we must de-
clare that the general feeling occasioned by
the impeachment seems to be one of relief. IL
is useless to deny that for moro than year
tho country, without morsel of confidence in
either the ability or the integrity OF Mr. john
son. has suffered extremely from doubt and
apprehension and if His Excellency's talents
and ambition had been equal, If the MAJOR
Generals bad been less sternly incOrruptble, IL
the Executive had been as lucky as Bonaparte
on the 9th of November, 1700, the Capitol might
have been empty this morning aud its Key IN
Lord Protectors pocket. When the timid
are shaken by apprehensiOns OF danger TO DC
met, let them refresh their souls by consld-
Grafton Of danger surmOunted! Now when IL
has been shown how impossible it is for
wickedly ambitious man to tamper with the
military power of the Republic, when our Gen
erals have smiled cOntemptuously at blandlsh-
ments and bribes, when the laws have been
yindicated and our liberties preserved, we
can calmly and ntelligently calculate the
probabe upshOt if Mr. johnson had been an
Oliver Cromwell. or Gen. Grant Col. Pride
if our Congressman had been towards and our
soldiers mere mercenares. AS it is, we have
only another beautiful illustration of the truth
of the axiom "The tools to him who can use
"them.n A weak man, attempting to carve his
way with the public sword, will simply cut his
fingers. We may thank our stars that the
very first personal attempt to grasp at auto
cratic power, in our history, was undertaken
by ono whose weakness made an ignominious
4 \ "a en-
over Mr.. Johnsons mediOcrty, so apparent i'll
all that he said and all that he did, that we
do not easily accommodate ourselves TO TINS
new estimate of the value of his wOrthlessnessj
but now We begin better to appreciate the
ways of Providence in permitting this first
attack upon the public Liberties TO be made,
not by an eloquent, learned, polite and
courageous asprant, but by Andy johnson of
Tennessee. Tho body polite will try its
"'prentice hand" on him, and he will at least
confer upon the country the obligation Of
furnishing prccedents for emergencies which
may be moro justly alarming.
ii would not bo difficult TO draw picture OF
what might now be the attitude of affairs if Mr..
johnson had been Gen. Jackson, without Gen.
Jackson's restraining virtue and common sense.
| In such case we do not pretend to say how
nearly through he might by dint of will and
military popularity, have engineered his coup
| d'etat but he certainly would not have tumbled
! headlong at the very first into such an inn
promptu catastrophe. He would have affnghted
the country for at least twenty -four hours. lie
would probably have obtained possession of
| the War Office by some operation of burg
| larious nature. lie might even have rallied
| around his standard couple of regiments,
and intrenched himself IN the White House for a
week or fora fortnight. What johnson really did
do was to send rather a weak headed General,
solitary and alone, to storm the War Office,
and to scare n man like Edwin NJ. Stanton,
backed by the Senate and the House, into an
unconditional and ignOminious surrender.
Nothing so serious was ever so silly-nothing
so silly ever came half so near being serious.
Turning from what might have been TO
what is, we see that everything has been for
tunately ordered. 1t would have been hard to
make cautious and peace-lOviDg people com
prehend that the President deserved impeach-
ment, we will say for the New-0reans infamy,
or for the corTuptions of the Revenue service;
but now his Offense has come in shape which
all men can understandable crime is naked,
patent, simple defiance Of law-he left Con-
gress no alteTnatve-he seemed to court one
final and desperate struggle, and like other
unprincipled men before him, he has found
ruin in the opportunity. No wonder that all
the reports from Washington concur in the
assertion that he has no friends left; for no.
body cares to unite his fortunes, however
desperate, with those of one who has played
his last card. and staked his last shilling,
and lost! Hardly one of those news
paper correspondents who have been honOred
SO often by the Presidents loquacious and in
discriminate confidence seems disposed, pen in
hand to come to his rescue. His Wise men
run away. His trustiest counselor seems to
have gone into hiding We do not even hear
of any clever woman who is lending her soft
and balmy assistance. The Democratic party
should, in honor, stand by the President, or, at
least, make a little show of sympathy; but the
leaders Of that sweet organization know by
long experience the precise value of man in
his position, and as for honor they long ago
ceased even to talk about it. All seems to be
working well, and we see no reason either for
fear or dependency, as there certainly would
have been had the House of Representatives
been in the least less prompt and decisive in
its action.
Honor 10 the brave! In reading with re-