Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-04-09

The following comments Of the Gin
cinnati Commercial would seem to ipdi'
cate the opinion that no charges can be
sustained which will warrant Mr. John
sons conviction. When Il is remem-
bercd that the Commercial represents
the more conservative and better class Of
Republicans, Il will be seen that its Ian
ruage is not without significance. II
thinks there are as many as ten Republic
can Senators who "will be governed BY
the testimony and the law" II that is
so acquittal is certain, for two thirds is
required to convict;
Persons who supposed that Andrew
Johnson was to be convicted before the
court Of impeachment, by some unknown
crimes, high, mysterious and awful, have
been disappointed. Mr.. B. I. Butler has
announced that the case is substantially
closed for the prosecution. The proof is
that the President tried 10 rid himself Of
one OF his Cabinet ofiicers-Mr. Stanton
and that when swinging round the
circle with Grant, Farragut and Seward,
he made fool of himself, and uttered n
great number of ipcoherent and violent
speeches. This the country understood to
some purpose in the fall of 1866, and the
existence of the impesching three
fourths of the present House ofRepresen-
tatives is, in considerable degree, due to
the intensity Of the Presidents folly, who
on his Journey 10 erect monument over
the grave of Douglas, prepared an ample
sepulchre, and erected monument as
enduring as brass, for himself The
merits Of the impeachment, therefore,
turn upon thehct Of the President in at
tempting to dispossess Stanton of the
War q flee. That the lawyers will argue,
and we hope they will be able to make il
clear. The New York World, in a re-
view Of the case as presented when the
theory ofthe impeachers became evident,
says: a.
peachment for the last two days disclose
and place in clear light what the man.
ayers mean to rely upon as their strong
point against the President. They will
try to prove that he intended to eject
Stanton from the War Department BY
force, and they betray evident symptoms
that if they fail in this they have little
expectation of securing q conviction.
If they cannot make itappear that it was
the purpose Of the President to resort to
force, they have really no case at
all If they can only prove that he
ordered Stanton to vacste the Office,
without taking any steps to en-
force the order, they will merely convict
him OF wish, but not of crime. They
cannot convict the President of removing
Stanton, for he has not been removed
nor of an actual resort to force, for no
force has been used. Their theory, as
stated by Batter yesterday, is, that there
was conspiracy between the President
and Adjutant General Thomas that the
parties 10 this conspiracy had no expec-
tatiou that Stanton would voluntarily
Weld up his Office, and that Thomas
threats of o forcible election were
authorized by the President" Eg
II has been shown that Thomas talked
about the use Of force. The question
arises whether he was authorized to do
so: and upon this the prosecution have
declined TO call Gen. Thomas himself.
The impeachment trial causes, very
little public excitement. A gentleman
who is in position in which he sees a
very large number Of intelligent persons
every day, and who is likely to be adj
dressed on political topics, tells US
that he noted it as 3 curious fact,
one day of last week, that twenty
eight gentlemen called upon and con-
versed with him, and not one intro
duced the subject of impeachment. The
trial of Andrew Johnson is discovered to
be very much like the trial of anybody
else; and there is reason to believe that
while about one-half of the Senators
would vote to convict the President, with
out evidence, simply upon the smart
speech of Butler or the peculiar elo-
quence of Logan, there are as many as
ten Senators who will be governed by the
testimony and the law.