New-York tribune., 1868-04-24

again fully unified in all its parts and relation
ships to-day. The war would have been over,
and restoration and reconstruction would be
now complete
Who prevented this most reasonable and
most desirable consummatOnY An accidental
President. A man borne into subordinate
place by the sympathies of nation for his
apparent great loyalty under trying circum-
stances; and thence elevated by the foul in
strumentality of an assassin into the Executive
Chair. This man, thus elevated, turned against
the party which chose him. which party is and
has been for the time the nations voice. the
nation itself At a critical period, on a vital
issue Vice-Presdent Johnson, made President,
planted himself substantially on the side of
the rebellous States, and deliberately aimed
to arrest and prevent, and, by his personal
and official influence, did actually arrest and
prevent the restoration of the Union, and the
harmonious reconstruction of the States on the
original plan offered by Congress. Looking at
the fragrant character of this interference, ana
the disastrous consequences resulting thereir0m,
we claim that this act alone was and is ample
to Justify his impeachment and conviction be-
fore the world and before posterity. That retri-
button has not sooner threatened the President
is TO be set down to the forbearance of the
country, and to the long-indulged, but, to the
last, disappointed hope that he would not
always prove an obstruction to the restoration
of the Union and the peace of the country
As President Johnson took sides with the
Rebels in resisting and rejecting the first and
more moderate scheme of reconstruction pro-
posed, so has he. if that were possible, more
strongly opposed the second plan of recon-
struction, now in process of execution, Ill de-
fiance of his personal and official hostility.
This general aspect of his course, in setting
himself up against the will of the nation-for
we say there is no other political nation than
Congress, where two-thrds of that body are In
unison-pr0jectng his personality his wiIlful-
ness, his pervcrseness, his defiant obstlnacy, III
resistance to the public WILL and in behalf OF a
conquered but still hostile and rebelious popu-
lation-this general political aspect of his con-
duct, we say, lifts the question OF impeachment
far above the fOgs which surround the technical
treatment Of its detais-details confusing to
the judgment of many minds, and which, how
ever important in their place, are really wholly
subordinate to the main issue in the case. The
great leading fact which history will regard
and posterity interpret rs the true and just
cause of President Johnson's removal, if he be
removed, the justification for his condemnation,
if he be condemned, is the fact that he went
over to the side of the Rebels i'll the final con-
test as TO the terms on which their hostility
should cease and they themselves retalle their
place in the government of the country. On
this vital question the voice of the nation was
one way, and the voice of Andrew johnson OF
Tennessee was against that way. And because
that opposition took the fOIm Of active hostility
and obstruction, preventing the first and imper-
ling the second act of restoration, and need
lessy and dangerously prolonging our civil
disorders, he was removed
AS to whether Mr.. Stanton falls within the
scope of the Civil Tenure act; as to Mr. John
sons pleadings that he and his Cabinet held
that act TO be unconstitutional; as to whether
Mr. Wade will make perfect President, or Will
appoint a good Cabinet; rs to whether an I'M
peachahle offense must be n penal ofiensc; as
TO whether Mr.. johnson cannot, by any lnge-
nious possibility, be supposed to have had no
bad intent in what he has done; and whether
a variety of other minor considerations cannot
be raised to poster and befog oyer-careful and
dainty minds--we must hold them to be things
soon to be consigned to the limbo of forgetful-
ness They will be hereafter overlooked by the
eve of History and Craftsmanship under the illu-
mination of the one great historic fact that An
drew johnson substantially joined the Rebels
at a critical period; that he resisted the Will
of the country and opposed all Its various
terms and propositions for the reconstruction
of the rebellous States. This constituted his
great and mortal ofiense. To be sure, he per-
sonally disgraced his high Office by shameful
harangues, and he claimed the right to defy
the laws when it suited his pleasure, and did
sustain his defiance by force, and did violate
them in q conspicuous instance, so declared
with great unanimity by the Senate; but his
greater offcnse was that he undertook TO make
himself an obstruction, and did obstruct in
most injurious manner the pacification of the
country after a bloody and desolating war,
during a long period of time, when the urgent
interests of peace, and justice, and national
prosperity demanded that pacification.
These are the solid grounds and foundation
for impeachment now, and for Its justification
hereafter. If conviction fails, as we believe it
should not and will not fail, it must be because
few minds will have conceived their cOnclu-
sions from certain legal, technical, perhaps
prejudiced, aspects of the case, unknown it even
may be to themselves; and that thus its failure
will have to be imputed, not to the motives of
a cOnsiderate craftsmanship, but to those more
contracted views from which every considera-
ton of public utility, and every high reason of
state, imperatively demand the subject should
be freed.
A number of ladies having associated them
selves together for the purposes of lunch and
gossip, there has arisen in the bosoms of sun
dry reDorters an uncomfortable eagerness TO