The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-17
IMFEAU dnENT A FAILURE.

.esident on that article, the llth, winch Was
considered to involve most danger to the ae-
cused. The vote stood IS for conviction and
10 for acquittal The total, "a, is fuli
Senate, as at present constituted, so that
every senator voted including, of course,
Wade and Howard The Republican sena-
tors who voted "not guilty are Messrs Fes-
sender, Fowler, Grimes, Henderson, hoss,
Trumbull and Van Wrinkle. This count as
sumes that there are twelve Democrats, SO
that Mr.. Norton must be considered as no
longer belonging to the Republican party.
The eleventh article, which has thus become
famous in the history Of this remarkable case,
impeaches the President of having, on the
18th of August, 1866, in a public speech, de-
MED the lawfulness of Congress, and, by i'm
plication, the validity of its legislation OF
having, on the 21st Of February, 1868, at
tempted to prevent the execution of the
tenure of Office act, by unlawfully continuing
means to prevent Stanton from resuming his
functions as secretary of war after the refusal
of the Senate to concur in his suspension
and of contriving or attempting to contrive
means to impede the execution OF the act
making appropriations for the support Of the
army, and the act "to provide for the more
efficient government of the rebel States"
The implication as to the act making appro-
priations for the support of the army, is that
the President attempted to prevent the en-
forcement of that part of the act which makes
Grant an independent commander, and re-
lieves him from military dependence on the
constitutional commander-in-chief.
1t thus appears that this, which is the final
article, is a sort of recapitulation of all the
others, and, therefore, it ought if it had
answered the purpose for which it was coz
trived, to have concentrated the whole i'm
parchment vote. For this reason, perhaps, it
was called by the reporters "the Gibraltar of
impeachment" Nevertheless, the Gibraltar
has been stormed and captured, and the re-
suit seems to be the decisive discontinue of
the radical forces. There is no reason to sup
pose that single one Of the Republican SEN
ators voting for acquittal on the eleventh ar
ticle, will vote for conviction on any one of
the others. The impeachers seem to be con-
WINGED that their chances of success have been
ruined, at least for the present. and they,
therefore, have adjourned the vote on the
other articles, in order to contrive means to
coerce the recusant senators into obedience to
the mandates of the party. All the machinery
of party compulsion will now be set in motion.
Meetings will be held in all parts of the coun-
try to urge conviction and to denounce the
penalty of accommodation against the SEN
ators who have dared to act according to the
dictates of their conscience and their judg-
ment. kilograms and letters will be poured
in upon them from every town and village
throughout the North, and fiery resolutions
prepared in the great crucible of .'incandes-
cent republicanism"- Chicago conven-
tion-will be hurled at their devoted heads It
will be the great and final effort of despairing
faction. But it will fail. The very magni-
tude of the endeavor to convert the judicial
Obligations of the senator into party duty
must only co1roborate the opinions and con-
firm the resolution of men who are resolved
to decide the case on different and antagonis-
teal principles. When once a senator has
decided that, in this matter, his judgment
should not be guided by party considerations,
the more conclusively it is shown that party
interests require him to change his position,
the more persistently and resolutely he must
refuse to change. No doubt the Chicago
convention will correctly represent the views
and wishes of the Republican party, in call
| ing for the conviction of the President, but
| it is presumable that Mr.. Fessenden and Mr..
| TIumbull, and the other mountaineering Re-
/ pubhcans, needed no testimony on this point.
They know that the Republican party desired
! and demanded the removal of the President
but they refuse to concede the point that they
should vote to convict him of high crimes
and misdemeanors, because their party wish
to get rid of him. On their theories of the
| duty of q senator, the more strongly the
point of party necessity and party obligation
is pressed upon them, the more impossible il
becomes for them to yield to the pressure.
1t may, therefore, be taken for granted that
the impeachment project has failed If @
vote should ever be taken on the remaining
ten articles, the result will only confirm the
vote taken yesterday. This collapse of the
audacious and fagitious scheme to convert
the Judicial functions Of the Senate into an
instrument of party aggrandizement is more
important even in general than in a special
sense. 1t is the first great failure of the
radicals. 1t is the first defeat of that reckless
and lawless spirit which animates the domi.
nant party, and which has threatened to sub.
vert the Constitution and to subordinate the
whole machinery of government to the pur.
poses Of an ambitious and vindictive party,
thoroughly INSCRIPTIONS in the agencies Of
its designs, regardless of constitutional limit
atoms, and defiant of public opinion. 1t is
the first triumph Of law and justice gained
by the aid'of members of party which has
trampled justice to the earth, and made the
law an instrument of oppression and destruc.
ton. The people of the whole country, and
especially of the South, owe debt of graft
tude to those senators who have thus sue
ceeded in checking that career of fragrant